School news
Students Recognized in State Poster Contest
The Modern and Classical Language Department is thrilled to announce that the following students were recently recognized for creative excellence in the Annual Poster Contest sponsored by the Vermont Organization of Classics and Language Educators (VOCALE, formerly the VFLA).
Clara Burkholder earned 1st Place in the High School division.
Myra McNaughton earned 3rd Place in the High School division.
Isla Segal earned 2nd place in the Middle School division.
Jackson Fellows earned 3rd place in the Digital Category
(Open to all grades!).
All students received certificates and copies of their posters as notecards. Their original posters have been framed and will be hung near the MAC Language classrooms.
Spanish III Makes Empanadas de Pino!
Above (Students preparing to roll out empanada dough)
On Tuesday, March 19th, both of Maestra Megyesi’s Spanish III classes went to room 18, where they prepared and cooked Chilean-style empanadas de pino. Prompted by the class's food and culture unit, they first watched a video on how to make these beef-filled empanadas. The class then discussed the food and cooking vocabulary they observed in the video before getting to work. Different groups of students worked on various jobs within the kitchen. While Maestra worked on making the empanada dough, other students chopped and cooked onions, and another seasoned and cooked the ground beef. Once the dough was finished, other students rolled it out and cut out the circles used to make the empanadas. After everything was prepped, each student had a chance to fill and fold an empanada, either by hand or by using an empanada press. To make the empanadas de pino more traditional, students had the option to add olives and raisins to the beef and onion filling. (Written by TA Aubrey Seman!)
Link to the video watched in class.
CRAFT-ers explore Maple Sugaring
CRAFT students have learned a lot about enduring unpredictability this maple sugaring season. Food and Forest Systems and Stewardship Action Project students installed 32 taps and collected over 230 gallons of sap, but only produced 4.5 gallons of Amber Rich syrup, as the sugar content was super low this year, hovering between 1-1.5%. Our season ended two weeks earlier than usual. However, students still had a great time learning about density, grading, filtering, wood splitting, sugar content and weather. Our school was one of 13 participating in a state-wide pilot project around data collection during the sugaring season.
Government Students Reenact Supreme Court Cases
In recent government classes, students seriously took on their roles as Supreme Court Justices as they heard oral arguments in the case Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972). With "order" on one side, and "freedom" on the other, the case explored whether an Amish family could remove their children from high school for religious reasons.
Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club Goes to Boston!
On Thursday, February 15, the Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club took Last Night at the Telegraph Club to Boston! Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo is this year's Vermont Reads book. It is a queer love story that takes place in the 1950s in San Francisco's Chinatown. The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club wanted to learn more about Lily's Chinese American cultural identity and the group experienced that through a food walking tour in Chinatown and the Lunar New Year celebration at the Museum of Fine Arts.
In response to a question about her favorite part of the trip, Sequoia Barbour stated, "While I enjoyed everything on the trip, my favorite part was probably the walking tour. I really enjoyed being able to try a lot of new things that I wouldn't normally get the chance to. My favorite foods we got to try were the egg custard tarts, the barbeque pork bao buns, the noodle dish at dim sum, and the scallion pancake." As we walked the winding streets of Chinatown, we were led by expert tour guide and food critic, Jacqueline Church. She taught us the history of Boston's Chinatown and shared the Chinese American experience in Chinatown with us through Chinese food, art and culture.
Commenting on connections they made between the book and the food walking tour, Luca Morris stated, "Walking into one of the shops--I think it was either the Chinese medicine shop or the Chinese barbeque shop--I saw a poster for a candidate in a Chinatown pageant, which reminded me of Shirley from the book and her campaign for Miss Chinatown. Also, I saw some foods in the shops or at the dim sum lunch that I remembered reading about in the book. For example, BBQ pork filled steamed buns."
After the food walking tour of Chinatown, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts for the Lunar New Year celebration where we saw a dragon dance for the Year of the Dragon, a Tai Chi demonstration, students participated in Chinese brush painting of bamboo and we saw a lion dance. Pivotal scenes in Last Night at the Telegraph Club take place during the Lunar New Year Celebration and these demonstrations and activities gave students the opportunity to be immersed in those traditions.
The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club would like to thank the Vermont Humanities Council for the Project Grant that made this trip possible.
To read more about the YADB Book Club's trip to Boston including a day at the Boston Public Library and to see more photos, please click here for the From the Library newsletter.