School news
The Intermediate Math team takes first place
The Intermediate Math team brought home their second first place finish in last week's math meet!
Lili Morris, Aidan Keough-Vella, Aubrey Seman and Dext Namkung all worked hard competing in 3 of the 4 sections. They beat out five other teams to come in first place. Dext Namkung was the top scorer for the entire Intermediate division.
There is one meet left and this team is currently in 2nd place overall. They are hoping to have another big win in March to win the whole thing! Congratulations Mathletes!!!!!
10th and 12th graders study tone and mood
The 10th and 12th-grade English students have been taking advantage of the quieter, darker winter months to delve into our contextual understanding of tone and mood through poetry.
Seniors read Frankenstein
Senior students have been learning about the Victorian Era, and the particular cultural shifts that shaped a generation before technology. In our reading of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, we have begun by identifying the fear of impropriety and social banishment. What does it mean to be an outsider? What was the cost of the first cities, and social growth across the globe?
Exemplars
The Long Journey
Jordan Allard
Where Did the Thrush Go
Holden Larmie
Sophomores read The Moderns
Likewise, the Sophomores have picked up their own thread in studying the very next generation of poets: The Moderns. In preparation for The Great Gatsby, and Poetry Outloud, Sophomore students have made fervent investigations into the themes of industrialization, wealth and prohibition after the fallout from WWI. In looking at some of the representative presentations of these poets, students were quick to point out the departure from Nature and religion towards the birth of technologies like the phone, camera and electric light.
Exemplars
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Reid Allegretti
Spring
Sydney Renfro
September 1, 1939
Kiara Nestler
Scholars Bowl team win small school state championship!
On Saturday, January 28th, the high school Scholars' Bowl team participated in the State Play-offs and Small School Championship matches. The young JV team won 2 matches and lost 2 matches, a very respectable record. The varsity team made it into the semi-finals after posting 2 wins/2 losses. In the semi-final match against Mount Abraham the team won 285 to 125 moving them into the finals. WUHS topped Lyndon in the finals 290 to 230. This is the first time WUHS has won the small school championship - congratulations to all our Scholars' Bowl players.
The varsity team will participate in the State Championships scheduled for April 1, 2023 against the other top schools - small and large.
Artists from Poetry Out Loud visit
On Tuesday, January 17th, Poetry Out Loud visiting artists Gina Stevensen and Quinn Rol from the Flynn Center visited a number of English classes in grades 9 through 12. Quinn and Gina led students through warm-up exercises and demonstrated "dos and don'ts" for presenting their self-selected poems.
All students in these classes will be presenting their poems to their peers, and some plan to move on to a school-wide Poetry Out Loud competition in February. Several brave students stood before their peers on January 17th to begin practicing their recitations.
We learned about the value of connecting with an audience through poetry recited "by heart" and/pr by readings delivered with poise, clear articulation, dramatic appropriateness, accuracy, and evidence of understanding.
8th grade class read “It Ain’t So Awful Falafel”
We made falafels! The 8th grade class finished the book, It Ain’t So Awful Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas about America’s relationship with Iran. The main character, an Iranian middle school-aged girl living in the US, makes the point that falafels are not traditionally Iranian but Americans often don’t know the difference. Jennifer Jabareen, one of our paraeducators, made the authentic falafel mixture and students made 3 dips. There were no leftover falafels and they got to sample some Persian ice cream flavored with saffron, rose water, and pistachios while taking their summatives this week.