TEAM WHS

2018-2019: Episode 12

Hello readers!

Today marks the first day of the 3rd quarter and the second semester! I cannot believe that we are here already!

We had a wonderful Class of 2022 semi-formal last Friday night. This was the first dance for the freshman class at WHS. It was well attended and really well supported by our class officers, parent advisers, staff, Dot Butler and the Coalition for a Safer Community and of course our staff class advisers. Thank you to all for your support of the Class of 2022 and great job by all the kids attending the dance.

In addition to the dance, Our Connect & Commit Club, led by Mrs. Annmarie Tan, also held a very cozy “Hygge” (Google it!) movie night as well on Friday night.

Winter concert:  The annual Winter Instrumental Concert is tomorrow night, January 29, 2019 at 7:00 PM in the WHS Auditorium. It will be a beautiful night of classic music performed by our WHS CONCERT BAND, WHS ORCHESTRA and WHS SYMPHONY. See attachment: winter instrumental concert poster 2019

LEED Certification Ceremony: Most folks may not know that WHS is a building that has been awarded the Gold level in LEED certification. LEED stands for “Leader in Energy and Environmental Design” and it is an award that we are very proud of. There will be a brief ceremony this Thursday night 1/31 at 6:30 in the WHS Dining Commons. All are welcome to attend and share in this award and enjoy the ceremony.

For more information on what LEED means check out this link: https://new.usgbc.org/cert-guide

Girls Soccer to be recognized: We want to let everyone know that our state champion Girls Soccer team will be recognized by MaxPreps and the Army National Guard as one of the Top 10 programs in the country(!) during their 8th Annual Girls Soccer Tour of Champions. As part of that honor, MaxPreps and the Army National Guard will be traveling to Winchester to host a brief ceremony for our young women on Tuesday, February 12th in the WHS Field House at approximately 6:30PM. Here’s a sense of what we expect for our girls: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdCFBnLxP5c

http://www.maxpreps.com/m/tour_of_champions/sport.aspx?sport=soccer

For our Class of 2019: We will be sending this link out to our current senior class this morning as friendly heads up! A reminder to all Seniors: it all matters!

New WHS Safety video: In this video Sgt/SRO Perenick and the Law Enforcement Club students remind our students to always lock up any materials or valuables. Another great multimedia effort by this group! https://drive.google.com/open?id=14x8_wtuQClz-WBxEpG0QLqOMXberSx4u

Student Goals: WHS grade 11 student Will Hofheinz and grade 12 student Will Rappole have some good intentions to start out the first week of semester 2! They can do it!

WINspiration: “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” — Georgia O’Keefe

NEW WHS Athletics Calendar

Thank you for reading!

Dennis P. Mahoney

TEAM WHS

2018-2019: Episode 11

Hello all and happy Superbowl hype week(s)!

We hope everyone enjoyed the first real snow fall of the year.  A big thank you to our entire custodial staff and the DPW for getting after it all weekend. Our DPW crew put in extra long hours to get everything as cleaned up as possible, and we definitely appreciate their extra efforts during this messy and exhausting season.

Mid-Years Reminder to All Staff: Just a reminder that this is our mid-year exam week! Mid-Year Exam Schedule

Online MCAS is coming! WHS is moving towards math and ELA for computer-based testing (CBT) for this years MCAS.  As you can probably imagine, this is a huge change for WHS (less so for the students who had CBT in K-8 schools). We will be doing some “practice testing” in advance of the actual tests in March and May so that we test our Wifi infrastructure. What that means is that some time starting in mid-February, we have to take some time out of our school day to get kids and teachers in the actual test setting as a trial run (for our kids, for our teacher proctors, and for our technology and infrastructure). Of course everyone is will rightfully say “Use WIN Block!” and yes, that would be the perfect way to do this. However, the state tells us the window of when we can actually do the infrastructure test so this may not be possible. More information regarding this practice will be coming soon. (It’s really just logging in and making sure everything is there for every test taker.)

*** We will also be doing our whole school Youth Risk Behavior Survey in either February or March. This survey is done online during the school day and throughout the entire Middlesex League. More info to come soon!

Real World Design Team:  The results are in for the State Competition, and the Real World Design Challenge Team Green Aero 290 came in 3rd in the state! Great job, Jeana diNatale. Kevin Khaghani, John Clewly and Linnae Casebeer! (see team pic below)

For our Class of 2019: We will be sending this link out to our current senior class just after midyear exams as friendly heads up! A reminder to all Seniors: it all matters!

New WHS Safety video: In this video Sgt/SRO Perenick and the Law Enforcement Club students remind our students to always lock up any materials or valuables. Another great multimedia effort by this group! https://drive.google.com/open?id=14x8_wtuQClz-WBxEpG0QLqOMXberSx4u

Mid-year reviews: We had some really creative review lessons going on last week at WHS. Ms. Lutchen’s class played “Grudgeball”, which was highly competitive, Dr. Spencer’s classes had a pub style trivia game, Dr. Glenwerk’s classes did self-paced stations where the students worked out different problem sets around the room but moved at their own pace, Ms. Goodwin’s classes play math Pictionary and we saw a whole lot more!

Mr. C’s PE classes did a team building exercise involving untying knots while being bound to another person!

Vaping Presentation Reminder: Wednesday, January 23 at 12:30 p.m., Dr. Maureen Courtney, will deliver a scientific discussion on the true hazards of vaping. Although this is a voluntary program, we strongly urge you to encourage your children to attend. We currently have approximately 200 students signed up and free pizza will be served!

 

The student goal should be pretty obvious this week so we thought we would step up and cheer them on!

 

WINspiration: “The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King Jr.

NEW WHS Athletics Calendar

Thank you for reading!

Team WHS

2018-2019: Episode 10

Welcome back and happy 2019! We hope everyone enjoyed the vacation time with our students at home. This week’s post has a ton on useful and important information for your review. Thank you for dropping in!

There is a school committee meeting happening tomorrow night at 7 PM in the WHS auditorium. The meeting will be focused on the current financial state of the district and the need for an override. This is a great opportunity to get direct information regarding the override and separate rumor from fact. Everyone is welcome to attend.

#21 Nationally! Normally I always want to be #1. But in this case being ranked #21 is pretty sweet too! Congratulations Winchester! Check it out: https://amp.usatoday.com/story/38833209

The NO resolution challenge: We sent this to all students on January 1. It may be helpful to you as well.  Take a look: Skip the resolution this year!

Mid year exams: Exams are right around the corner! Tuesday, 1/22 will be a Day 1. As a reminder, we will be re-setting the rotation for the start of S2/Q3 and therefore Monday 1/28 will be a Day 1. The following link is our Mid-Year Exam Schedule.  Please note the change in buses and help remind students of this change.

Our Class of ’19 Officers with their goal for the week!

Please see this letter from our School Resource Office Dan Perenick: Traffic Enforcement from SRO/Sgt. Perenick

Vaping Letter: WHS and McCall will be sending out a letter regarding current vaping issue that many of our students are facing on a daily basis. This letter was written for the district by Jason Levene, our district wellness coordinator. You can see the letter here

Vaping Presentation and Discussion: The Winchester Coalition for a Safer Community and WHS Science Teacher and Field Hockey Coach, Michelle White, have worked together to set up a great opportunity for our students, families and community.  On Tuesday, January 15, Dr. Maureen Courtney, Chair of the Science Department at The Rivers School, will speak with parents about why e-cigarette (vaping) use among teenagers in the United States is now being viewed as an epidemic by the FDA.  The presentation, “Vaping – my teen says it’s no big deal, how can I help her see the risks?,” will be held from 12:00-1:30 p.m. at the Town Hall (Waterfield Room, lower level) as part of the Winchester Coalition Luncheon Series.  

On Wednesday, January 23 at 12:30 p.m., Dr. Maureen Courtney, will deliver a similar presentation to our WHS students.  Although this is a voluntary program, during mid-year exam week, we strongly urge you to encourage your student to attend.  Pizza will be served!

WHS Criminal Justice/Law Enforcement Explorers: Our WHS students toured the Boston Police Department Headquarters and Special Operations Station during the holiday break.  Winchester Auxiliary Officer Jason Marshall who is a full time Communications Officer with the Boston Police coordinated the tour which involved seeing and meeting officers and support personnel in media relations, crime scene investigations, ballistics, communications/911 for police and Boston EMS, graphic artist, intelligence section and special operations including SWAT, K-9 and Motorcycle unit.  All who attended were able to see what makes a large city police department successful 24/7. Take a look at the pics below!

CTC Lecture Series: Mr. Joe Davis will visit WHS this week during WIN block.  His Creative Technology Lecture ‘Ad Archaea ad Astra’ will address his study of ancient organisms such as salt crystals and meteorite and how he uses ‘junk’ DNA material to uncover creative opportunities that blend science and art.  Mr. Davis just got back from Moscow where he shared his transgenic and metalized silks that were inspired by spider webs.  He is excited about a newly minted project with the German cultural ministry for the creation of a (his words) “temporary institute for the unification of knowledge”.   Mr. Davis’ works include centrifuges, radios, prosthetics, magnetic fields, and genetic material. Mr. Davis is an eccentric role model that is sure to teach and to entertain! Congratulations Boyand Wang, 2021, for her winning poster design!

WINspiration: “Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.” — Oprah Winfrey

From last week and a personal favorite:  “It’s a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.” — Robert Strauss

 

A couple of links from the last few days of 2018:

New photos from the fall play “Around the World in 8 Plays” https://photos.app.goo.gl/mTzRKpfTZZtERwSB8

The WHS Red and Black Online: http://redandblack.whscomputered.com/–

A nice summary that we sent out regarding the success of WHS Gives Back

NEW WHS Athletics Calendar

Thank you for reading and have a great week!