School news
Leadership Summit coming up on October 11
The Superintendent's Advisory Council is hosting their third annual Leadership Summit on Social Action on Wednesday, October 11.
The Superintendent's Advisory Council is hosting their third annual Leadership Summit on Social Action on Wednesday, October 11. WUHS students are encouraged to sign up for this day-long event hosted at the Killington Grand Hotel.
This year’s summit will include student-led activities, discussions, and breakout sessions, along with speeches and activities from guest speakers. Food and transportation will be provided, and students will return to school in time for sports, buses, and other after-school commitments.
The deadline for all applications is Wednesday, October 4. If you have any questions, reach out to any of the emails listed on the application form.
We hope to see you at the Leadership Summit this year!
AP Language and Composition in “Nature”
Ms. Hagge’s AP Language and Composition class have been learning about rhetorical situation and rhetorical devices.
Ms. Hagge’s AP Language and Composition class have been learning about rhetorical situation and rhetorical devices as they explore the essential question of the first thematic unit: “How do we reflect on humanity’s place in the natural world?”
After watching the film An Inconvenient Truth, discussing Al Gore’s rhetorical choices, doing presentations on rhetoric in a variety of texts concerned with the topic of climate change, we are now turning our attention to Emerson’s classic transcendentalist essay “Nature.”
We took the opportunity of fair weather, on a warm September afternoon to read and study “Nature” outside.
Integrated environmental science class update
In Integrated Environmental Science, students recently completed a multi-day experience immersed in our outdoor forested classroom.
In Integrated Environmental Science, students recently completed a multi-day experience immersed in our outdoor forested classroom. Students worked collaboratively to identify the various species of trees present in the Northern Hardwood Forest.
Students will also have the opportunity to teach their peers how to identify a single tree species using important identification characteristics, as well as sharing a song, poem or watercolor painting.
In the future, students will combine their observations with the long-term monitoring data from our AP Environmental Science class to calculate the Simpson’s Index as one way to measure biodiversity. The study of our forest includes opportunities to develop an increased appreciation for the natural landscape and to discuss the importance of being a forest steward. Our work also serves as a foundation to understanding the beautiful complexity of old growth forests.
The 9th grade Integrated Environmental Science students also engaged in a unique service learning opportunity as part of the course’s alignment to WUHSMS’s CRAFT program, which connects students, teachers, and community patterns through food and forest systems to empower people to be engaged in place-based solutions. Students helped to remove a fence that was damaged by flooding this past summer and helped to clear the garden in preparation for the installation of lasagna garden beds.
Resilience in the school garden
The school garden was under 6 feet of water back in July. Our Agriculture classes have been working hard to clean up and rebuild.
The school garden was under 6 feet of water back in July. Our Agriculture classes have been working hard to clean up and rebuild.
We will be able to use some of the (very resilient) crops that survived the flooding; such as garlic, corn, carrots, amaranth, tomatoes, and ground cherries; as seed for next year.
Luckily, we grew produce in a new permaculture garden behind the bus barn that Josie Cross designed for her Stewardship Action Project in the spring. We have been making zucchini bread, salsa, kale chips, and zucchini tots with the produce.
Library news
The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club is reading Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo.
Julia and Isabelle started delivering The Valley News to the library and classrooms as part of the Newspapers in Education program and Kiki received a book through interlibrary loan that is a memoir written by her great-grandfather titled Black Cuban, Black American.
The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club is reading Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. Stop by the library or the Club Fair next week for more information. And, the Faculty/Staff Book Club is reading The Art Thief by Michael Finkel. Both book clubs are meeting in October.
