School news
Students visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
Students in Advanced Art, AP Art History, AP Drawing and Latin visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on March 27th. Some students went on a guided tour that focused on several different works of art made from a variety of media and from a variety of time periods and places. The docents engaged the students in meaningful conversations that related to identity, culture, artistic expression and visual stories. All were impressed by the power of Turner’s Slave Ship. Magistra Allen’s students also worked to complete a scavenger hunt in Latin about different works of art in the Egyption, Greek, and Roman sections of the museum. Students also had some time to explore the exhibits on their own, and during this time the art students had the opportunity to sketch inspiring works of art.
2023-2024 Madrid-Woodstock Exchange
Retiro Park, Madrid
We are excited to announce that WUHS students will have the opportunity to participate in an exchange with high school students from the Colegio Salesiano Paseo Extremadura in Madrid, Spain next year. Luis Villanueva, Betsie O’Neill and Anna Megyesi are coordinating the exchange. El Colegio Salesiano is a wonderful school in Madrid that offers K-12 studies including vocational training in nursing, early childhood education, technical sports and physical activities, computer science and communications.
Dates: Students from Spain will be arriving the second week in September and staying 10 days. Woodstock students will be traveling in Spring of 2024 to Madrid for 10 days.
Our planning team will be working this Spring and summer on selecting and matching students, and working with host families on logistics.
Segovia
We will hold a parent meeting later this Spring for parents of applicants.
Itinerary: In addition to the rich cultural exchange and homestay experience, Woodstock students will visit two UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Prado Museum and Retiro Park. In addition, students will take day trips to Segovia, Spain to explore the famous Roman aqueduct, Medieval Alcázar and historic Cathedral as well as La Granja San Ildefonso.
Application and Host Family Information: We have held two informational meetings with students. Interested students will be sent a digital application that focuses on Skillful Communication, Academic Excellence, Stewardship, Critical Thinking and Self Direction. Approximately twenty students will be participating from each school.
Interested: Please email Anna Megyesi amegyesi@wcsu.net if you and your family are interested in participating. . Click here to access a brief informational presentation.
Algebra 2 students search for parabolas in nature
On Monday, Mr. Bremel and Mrs. Vonada took their Algebra 2 students to Mt. Tom in search of Parabolas in Nature. Parabolas are the "U" shaped graph of quadratics. Algebra 2 students have been studying quadratics and this project was for them to take pictures of nature that appear to model parabolas. They will then do some analysis of their pictures as they overlay them onto graphs. Finally, they will write equations for their parabolas and decide if their nature picture really does model a quadratic. Thank you to Kat Robbins and her Mt. Tom team for a great guided tour and hot chocolate!
Annie Hauze runner-up in Vermont State Poetry Out Loud finals
In the past week, senior Annie Hauze commanded the stage as Woodstock's Poetry Out Loud champion in the regional competition held in Barre, Vermont, qualifying for state finals; she went on to play the lead all weekend long in the fabulous Percy Jackson:The Lighting Thief Musical.
Taking full advantage of the gift of time a snow day affords, Annie added a third poem to her repertoire in preparation for the Vermont State Finals Competition for Poetry Out Loud, held at Burlington's Flynn Center, Thursday evening, March 16th. Competing with other state finalists from Burr and Burton, Champlain Valley, Bellows Free Academy- Fairfax, Peoples Academy, St. Johnsbury Academy, Bellows Free Academy -- St. Albans, Williamstown, Thetford and Rice Memorial, Annie led round one with Shakespeare's "Sonnet 55: Not marble nor the gilded monuments". In Round 2, Annie captivated her audience with her signature recitation of Adelaide Crapsey's "The Properly Scholarly Attitude". Annie's pacing, intonation, physical presence and delivery in both these recitations were impeccable and secured her position as one of the top 3 selected to recite a third poem, Thursday night.
To lean on a line from her rendition of "Clear Night" by Charles Wright, Annie was indeed "strung up in a strong light and singled out" for her excellence, "gears notch[ed] and engines wheel[ed]" in ways that led her to Woodstock's top finish as our first "runner up" in the state Poetry Out Loud competitions over the years.
While it was hard for any of us to discern the difference between Annie's recitations and Greer Kennedy's of St. Johnsbury Academy, top place went to Greer who will travel to Washington, D.C. in early May to represent Vermont in the national Poetry Out Loud contest. In the meantime, keep an eye out for more of Annie's amazing performances this spring in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the class of 2023 Speak Chorus, and likely many other performance events!
Sugaring season at King Farm
Students in CRAFT and agriculture classes had the opportunity to go up to the King Farm during class to learn about and help sugar.
SAP (Stewardship Action Project) students began last week by putting out 42 taps with buckets. They have been busy collecting sap, boiling and splitting firewood.
Food and Forest Systems classes, along with Foundations of Agriculture students, have visited the sugarhouse with Kat Robbins. They had fun learning about the sugar content of sap vs. syrup using a hydrometer, the quantity of sap required to produce a gallon of syrup, the process of sap evaporation and filtration, and they also had the opportunity to taste the sweet sap sugar that was produced during the past week and a half of boiling.
We have already collected over 300 gallons of sap from our buckets and plan on collecting a lot more this week as the cold nights and warm days make for a perfect run! Our syrup will be tried by students during a pancake breakfast and will be used in future CRAFT classes for cooking. We might even have enough for the cafeteria.
