School news
Latin Students attend Latin Day at UVM
Woodstock students in grades 7-12 who are studying Latin and ancient Rome attended Latin Day at UVM on March 26th. Students participated in various fun and educational breakout sessions including a tour of the Fleming Museum, a visit to UVM’s special collections, a session on how Roman military formations worked, and more. Students in Latin I-III wrote and performed a skit (titled "Apud Nos" - "Among Us") based on this year's theme of "Elections". We were the only school to do our play completely in Latin and got a lot of gasps and laughs. We won second place in the skit contest and got to perform it a second time. Nick Cellini and Finn Farrell represented us in the pool-noodle gladiator fight, and were victorious. Remy Malik also represented Woodstock in the Classical Trivia challenge. She was part of one team that made it to the final competition, and in that public competition she was the first to answer a question correctly. All in all we had a great day and look forward to attending next year!
CRAFT joins Youth Lobby!
Kody Latiegne, Riley O'Neal, and Joaquin Jones-Welker witnessed a potentially historic vote from the seats of the Vermont Senate Chambers as the Senate voted 21-5 to advance a bill that would establish a Climate Superfund that Vermonters could use to pay for natural disasters caused by climate change by taxing major fossil fuel producers. These CRAFT students were at the statehouse with 40 students from five other schools as part of a Youth Lobby day. Students observed the opening portion of the House session, stood in solidarity with student speakers at a press conference, and then met with Representative Buss and Senator White to discuss proposed amendments to the Renewable Energy Standard. The day was empowering and energizing, as indicated by Kody: "I learned that I can actually make a potential difference in how a bill is worded just by calling and asking questions."
Live Your Life Week!
WUMS QSA students put hours of time and energy into a program they developed called, "Live Your Life". Big goal: To increase empathy and promote positive social interaction in our middle school by helping people get to know each other’s stories. They led a presentation each day during Connections Time this week to address tough topics with group activities. Students in the 7th and 8th grade were mixed into 7 different groups. They also designed and made buttons and a resource brochure. The Woodstock Inn supported our group by helping with the costs of white carnation flowers that were offered at the end of an assembly presentation to students. Three other important middle school QSA members were absent for the group picture.
Library News!
This week, the library has hosted Middle School advisories and High School English, Spanish and French classes. And, on Friday, there was an Easter egg hunt!
The next Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club pick is We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds and the next Faculty/Staff Book Club pick is The Fury by Alex Michaelides. Stop by to pick up your copy!
Please remember to return your overdue books, renew books you need more time to read and check out some new spring reads.
Germany exchange with CRAFT
Last week, Woodstock Union High School’s CRAFT Program welcomed 5 exchange students from Ingolstadt, Germany visiting for the 2nd leg of the very first CRAFT exchange. For some, it was their first time ever in the US, for all it was their first time in Vermont. A few of them had already embarked on journeys to Boston or New York City, but they found life in Vermont starkly different to life in the city. For a week they stayed with their host families and got to learn the ins and outs of the town and the state!
For some background, a few weeks ago five of our very own CRAFT students went to their school in Ingolstadt, Germany to learn about their culture and what the agricultural aspect of their country is. They stayed with their host family in Germany and our students hosted them here. Some of them grew up watching American pop culture television or even listening to American music. While doing so, they built up stereotypes about the country in their heads, most acknowledging that when they came to Vermont those stereotypes evaporated and were proven wrong. One of the biggest stereotypes that they all agreed upon was the food. “There is a German stereotype about the US that we only eat burgers and fries and fast food.” noted by Elisa. She had been to Boston recently and ate quite a bit of fast food because it was cheaper. Here she talked about how it was different because of all of the access to vegetables and fresh produce. There isn't a lot of that in Boston.
Along with the fresh fruits and vegetables, another aspect of Vermont that they got to enjoy and something it’s kind of known for, is nature. They live in a city of 150,000 people in Germany and here in Vermont we take nature for granted sometimes. Elisa commented on how fresh the air was here, and the privacy aspect as well. When speaking on the essence of Vermont they all agreed that it had a really “romantic feeling to it.”
All of them really liked the lifestyle that we live here as Vermonters. In the city there's a lot of hustle and bustle and here it's very calming, peaceful and “real nature.” Of course you can't forget the cute houses too!
This week the German exchange students got to experience nature first hand. Some of their activities for the week were skiing at Killington , exploring the national park and Billings Farm in town and seeing firsthand where our food comes from. They visited Vermont Farmstead Cheese and got to make some of their own cheese. They got to go to the King Farm and the Richardson farm to participate in the quintessential/classic Vermont experience of sugaring! Last but definitely not least, they got to plant some seeds in the wonderful greenhouses here at the high school!
Regarding some of their experiences in nature, Patrick said, “Nature for me personally, was the best part, skiing in the mountains was awesome.” Most of the exchange students hadn’t been skiing before so they were really excited about being able to try something new in the beautiful mountains of Vermont.
When inquired about why they wanted to come on the trip, they spoke on the fact that learning about new cultures was incredibly important to them. Patrick commented that every time he learns about a new culture it adds more to his own beliefs and his own perspectives on life. Amelie agreed and remarked on talking to someone who's really familiar with the town, she really enjoys being around people who know the town well and the culture.
Something that really struck me that they said was about how we get used to our surroundings so easily. Them being from a city, they appreciated the nature here much more than you and I do on a daily basis. “You don’t realize what you have because you see it every day.” (Amelie).
Overall, our students and the German students had an amazing experience and got to learn a lot from each other and their countries! It is super exciting being able to connect with someone from another country and everyone had such a good time. Thank you to all the teachers, parents and students who made the German students feel welcome!!