Team WHS

2019-2020: Episode 6

Hello, readers, and welcome back to the blog. This week at WHS we are all NEASC all the time. As many of you know, NEASC is our decennial accreditation process and a significant part of our continuous self-reflection as an educational institution. While we are always reflecting on and reviewing our practices, NEASC offers an unbiased outside evaluation that also helps our school to shape and focus on specific goals.

On Monday, we welcomed seven administrators from around New England to explore just about all aspects of WHS. Our visiting team looks at WHS’ culture, curriculum, teaching and learning, opportunities for growth, wellness supports, budget, facilities and much much more. This week is phase two of the two-part process, and the visit has been quite successful. Our visiting team has met with faculty, students, parents (thank you PFA for the support!) administrators, and support staff. They have been in classrooms asking students about their thoughts and experiences at WHS, examining student work, asking important questions, spending time observing our culture and so much more.  On Wednesday, the  visiting team will spend time with our staff and give us a general review of their visit and share some initial feedback. Following the presentation, the visiting team will then go back to their own schools and spend some time working on crafting a full report for feedback and suggested next steps. We will be sure to share the final report out when we receive it.

We want to thank everyone involved for all of their support. This week is the embodiment of the phrase “it takes a village,” and we are indebted to our community for the continued focus on our students and our schools. Thank you!

Our WHS parent volunteers working with our NEASC visiting committee members.

The ’49’ers: Members of the WHS Class of ’49 met last week at the Cafe Escadrille and reminisced about all their wonderful memories of WHS and the great education they received. At 88 years young, their strongest bond is still back to WHS. 

End of Q1: Just a reminder that the end of Q1 is this Friday, 11/1. 

Halloween Reminder: We know that students like to dress up for the day, and we do not want to stifle their creativity, but we also need to make sure they do so in a safe manner and respectful way.  As always, no masks or full face paint is allowed. Students shouldn’t be wearing hoods (same as on any school day) or any headgear that obscures their face.  Thank you for following these safety expectations. Please contact any administrators with questions.

Autumn Winds and Stings: October 30th!

WFEE! WFEE’s online auction this week is fast, fun and for your children. There are teacher led experiences for students plus a variety of items for adults, take a look at https://charityauction.bid/wfee. Bidding closes Friday, Nov. 1^st at 7 pm.

New WHS Staff: Say hello to Gordon Casey! (who has another very interesting fact to share!)

And say salut to French teacher Josh Hogan

We saw so many good things happening this week!

Students used candy to model brain neurons in Ms. Paduto’s (previously Gifford) Psychology classes.

 

George Gilmer, grade 11, played bass while Mrs. Hillstrom’s English classes were reading A Streetcar Named Desire. George played and also read as Stanley! 

Our Early Childhood education students are brought their “real babies” home this weekend and all came back safe and happy!  

Students in Ms. D’Alimonte Chiodini’s Italian III class stretching their muscles, with directions in Italian, before putting their brains to work!

 

Our cross country teams had their final home meet of the year. Congratulations to Lizzie Reynolds with a school record of 17:55! It was great to see members of the WHS football and volleyball teams who came out to cheer on their friends. As we have noted in this space before, cross country is the best spectator sport we have!

 

 

WHS Goal Setters: Our great kids are thinking about success inside and outside of school.  Niha Ghosh and Boyang Wang, both grade 11, have some healthy social/emotional centered goals they want to focus on this week! Omar Shakeel, gr. 11, is focused on the upcoming basketball season and putting in the work. Get it done Omar! We love to see it girls!

Learning Beacons: Please be sure to give yourself a reminder every now and then of our WPS Learning Beacons 

Vision of a WHS Graduate: Official Vision of A WHS Graduate 

WINspiration: “Kindness is the language Which the deaf can hear And the blind can see.” – Mark Twain

WINspiration 2:  “I only compete against three people. Who I was yesterday. Who I am today and who I want to be tomorrow.” — Jessi Kuhlman

The links:

Athletics: winchestersachems.org

Thank you again for stopping by the blog! Have a great Halloween!

Dennis Mahoney

TEAM WHS

2019-2020: Episode 5

Hello readers and welcome back!

Thank you to WFEE, Ms. Zampitella and our English Department orchestrating another fantastic Authorfest day at WHS! This year we had Steve Almond, author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football speak to our students about his journey and writing experiences. He touched on a number of healthy messages in his presentation including, write about your passions…and white chocolate and Twizzlers are terrible.  And he’s right about all three! You know it’s true!

Vision of a WHS Graduate: The Vision of a WHS Graduate was shared out publicly to all WHS families and was received with supportive and positive feedback. Please be sure to be familiar with and mindful of this document. Official Vision of A WHS Graduate 

LC4 Post Grads Blog:  

Welcome to the new school year! https://whspgp.blogspot.com/2019/10/welcome-to-new-school-year.html

Travel Training https://whspgp.blogspot.com/2019/10/travel-training-bowling-and-brickyard.html

What’s been going on and great at WHS?

Students having a ball with a lab in Mr. Carlson’s classes.

So many different mediums are being practiced in art classes on a daily basis!

Mrs. Green’s students showing their peers their new apps they designed and built and Mr. Potel’s students using the entire room and all the white boards for their review and practice.

Mrs. Timmins and Ms. Hardy’s biology students doing a gallery walk/collaboration/share for a review of lipids and Dr. Spencer having minute long 1:1 feedback sessions with students.

New WHS Staff: Say hello to Joe Boyan

WHS Goal Setters: Kyle Ettenhofer, grade 12, gets originality points! Yes, that says “Do my laundry on time” + yes, we do support students working on those important life skills!

Autumnal WPS Student Art Exhibition: There are over 80 young artists from grades K-12 being featured in this year’s exhibit at the Winchester Public Library! Works were chosen during the June 2019 Town Day Exhibition by guest juror, Artist/Educator Julie Williams-Krishnan. This exhibit will be on display from October 3 through November 30th. 

WINspiration: “In every difficult situation is potential value. Believe this, then begin looking for it.” — Norman Vincent Peale

The links:

Athletics: winchestersachems.org

WPS Learning Beacons 

Official Vision of A WHS Graduate 

Thank you for reading this week!

Dennis P. Mahoney

Team WHS

2019-2020 Season 4: Episode 4

Vision of a WHS Graduate:

***The below information will be emailed to all WHS families by mid-week.****

Last fall, prompted by the NEASC accreditation process, Winchester High School began collaborating to craft a vision of the graduate. Composing and adopting our own vision statement is a key component in New England Association of Schools and Colleges ( NEASC) process.  The in the NEASC documents, overview for this standard states:

The school provides a safe learning culture that ensures equity and fosters shared values among learners, educators, families, and members of the school community. These shared values drive student learning as well as policy, practice, and decision-making while promoting a spirit of collaboration, shared ownership, pride, leadership, social responsibility, and civic engagement. The school community sets high standards for student learning, fosters a growth mindset, and facilitates continuous school improvement to realize the school’s core values, beliefs about learning, and vision of the graduate.

The process WHS has employed to develop this vision statement has been rigorous. Input was solicited from students, WHS staff, families, school committee members, and community members about what our shared vision of the graduate should include.  As educational professionals, we spent multiple faculty meetings last fall brainstorming the qualities that we would like to see in graduates of WHS. At the same time we were constructing these lists, the other groups that constitute the high school community were engaging in similar conversations.  In January, the diverse products from all of our efforts were combined and organized into a set of working notes that were passed on to the Vision of the Graduate Committee. This committee, comprised of Judy Hession, Eric Lister, Bob Trakimas, Ipshita Chaklarar, Kathy Grace, Dave Benedetto, Andrew Langlois and Dennis Mahoney, attended several meetings over the second half of the year to frame multiple drafts of this vision statement.  Successive drafts were compared to best practices from other districts, and the results were aligned with the WPS Learning Beacons.  

The Vision Committee very recently finished an advanced draft of the vision statement that was then shared with the WHS faculty for final approval.  Now we would like to share The Vision of a WHS Graduate with you. We hope that you will be able to see the spirit of stakeholder ideas in this statement. Indeed, we have worked hard to incorporate as many of your suggestions as possible into this draft. 

In closing, it is important to note that although this work may have been catalyzed by the NEASC accreditation process, the conversations initiated during this process have always been focused on preparing our students for fulfilling lives after WHS.  Thank you for your continued support of our WHS students, staff and greater community.

• Dennis P. Mahoney and the members of the Vision of a WHS Graduate Committee

Please access our work on the Vision of a WHS Graduate HERE

WHS Staff Spotlight: A special highlight on our own Ms. Judy Hession. This past Wednesday, Ms. Hession was honored by Harvard University for Excellence in Teaching. Only four teachers in Massachusetts receive this award each year, and we know that Ms. Hession is most deserving of this recognition. The ceremony included a breakfast and presentation at The Harvard Club. Ms. Hession has been at WHS since 1970 and is still going strong today! Congratulations to Ms. Hession, and a huge thank you for everything she does and has done at WHS! 

WHS LC4 Post Grads Blog: Welcome to the new school year! https://whspgp.blogspot.com/2019/10/welcome-to-new-school-year.html

Travel Training: https://whspgp.blogspot.com/2019/10/travel-training-bowling-and-brickyard.html

New WHS Staff: Say Ciao to Ms. D’Alimonte Chiodini!

And Say “hola” to Mr. Chris Sheehan

WHS Finding Happiness: As part of our focus on SEL at WHS, we were lucky to be able to book known speaker Pam Garramone https://www.pamgarramone.com/ who focuses on using positive psychology. She uses a very scientific approach to happiness and runs workshops for students to participate in as they are learning. Our grade 9 and grade 11 students attended, and we heard a lot of positive feedback. As always, please feel free to continue the conversation!

Autumnal WPS Student Art Exhibition: There are over 80 young artists from grades K-12 being featured in this year’s exhibit at the Winchester Public Library! Works were chosen during the June 2019 Town Day Exhibition by guest juror, Artist/Educator Julie Williams-Krishnan. This exhibit will be on display from October 3 through November 30th. 

WHS Goal Setters: Grade 9 students Jalen Le and Jackson Hunter-Lynch are keeping it simple this week and going with a classic goal of studying harder. Grade 9 students Noah Acker and Arjan Biemans spent last week thinking about other people and how to make their world a better place for all! We love it!

What’s going on at WHS?

Ms. Cella made a Mood Meter for her students that is all in Italian. Our American Studies and US History students went to the Edward M. Kennedy Center.

We said adios to our Spanish exchange students. 

Ms. Gifford’s Intro to Psychology class performing their “Chocolate Chip Cookie” statistics lab in class. Mrs. Hillstrom’s students enjoying their flexible seating options! And Dr. Geyer + Ms. Hardy’s students review by moving around the room and writing down what they know about a topic so everyone can see it and share their knowledge as well.

We loved seeing Ms. Glenworks STAG students going old school and new school at the same time!

Mr. Rhatigan’s E block Modern Culture + Media, with the support of SRO Perenick, put on an actual tailgate lunch party in our student parking lot during a portion of E Block celebrating the completion of Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, a memoir chronicling a season in the life of rabid Alabama Crimson Tide football fans. Roll Tide!

Learning Beacons: Please be sure to give yourself a reminder every now and then of our WPS Learning Beacons 

WINspiration: “Solving a problem is hard enough; it gets that much harder if you’ve decided beforehand it can’t be done.” – Steven D. Levitt

The links:

Athletics: winchestersachems.org

Thank you for reading this week!

Dennis P. Mahoney