School news
Marie Anderson is WUHSMS 2025 Teacher of the Year!
In June, Marie Anderson was recognized by her colleagues as the 2024-25 Teacher of the Year for her colleagueship, professional knowledge in her subject area of French and her dedication to her students in the classroom, as leader of numerous educational exchanges to France and as co-advisor of Student Council. The entire Modern and Classical Languages Department sang a song in her honor with the refrain, “Sacré bleu! She’s très magnifique! She’s got that je ne sais quoi, sounique! Congratulations Madame Anderson and best wishes for your retirement!
“Marie is all heart. And that heart overflows with love for her family, her friends, her students, her colleagues, well just about anyone who enters her orb. Marie doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve; you see it on her face each time she smiles at you and gives you her full attention. Her full and beautiful heart is the engine that drives her.”
“I am so excited that we get to recognize Marie for her dedication to so many aspects of our school for many years. While she’s been at WUHSMS for 14 years, many of you may not know that she’s actually been in the district for 25 years, having taught at both Killington and Reading Elementary schools. In her time here Marie has been an incredibly supportive colleague, enormously organized department head, passionate teacher, and dear friend of mine.””
The Last Hurrah: Class of 2025 Celebrated Their Final Week at WUHS
The Class of 2025 kicked off their final week at Woodstock Union High School with a class trip to Jiminy Peak, MASS MoCa, and dinner at Off The Rails. While the day was soggy, spirits were high. Seniors received an impressive number of scholarships at Scholarship Night. Senior Celebration Night included a nostalgic slideshow of candid pictures from over-the-years, presentations of the Seal of Biliteracy, CRAFT honors, and Senior Class Awards, followed by pulled pork sandwiches, cake and lawn games.
The week culminated in a lovely graduation ceremony on the football field. Family and friends were present for inspiring student and faculty speeches, the always delightful speakchorus, and presentation of diplomas. Congratulations to the Class of 2025!
Library News!
In this week's From the Library, learn about the Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club Alpha Readers, celebrate National School Library Month, join the Book Club, check out the exciting programs happening in the library including Nobel laureate Dr. Victor Ambros's presentation on April 4 and National Book Award Winner M.T. Anderson's visit on April 11! Please click here for more information and photos.
Woodstock Students Attend Latin Day
High school students who study Latin (and some who studied ancient Greek!) participated in Vermont's Latin Day at UVM on Wednesday, April 16th. In addition to sharing great skits, some students had a tour of classically related art at the Fleming Museum, others were able to look through 400+ year-old books and manuscripts in Latin (and sometimes in Greek!) in UVM's special collections, and others had a tour of Latin inscriptions at UVM.
Others participated in breakout sessions where they reenacted a Roman "testudo" formation, some showed off their knowledge of the poet Ovid, others replayed an ancient battle on a gameboard, and a few very creative students participated in a costume contest.
Finn Farrell, Sam Hauze, Hannah Allen, Tula Klock, Libby Fraga, and Lexi Gabardi put on an awesome skit about Hyacinthus and Apollo. As usual, ours was completely in Latin and very funny, and we earned 2nd place in the skit competition! They also brought their skit back to WUHS and presented it at Best Wednesday on April 9th.
At Latin Day Alyssya Charbonneau won second place in the fiber craft category!
Tegan Miller and Owen Whalen represented our school in a live trivia (certamen) game, and Tegan's team walked away with first place.
It was a great day full of fun and creativity that celebrated our interest in the ancient world!
"Future Furniture Studio Lights Up Students"
"This week, high school students wrapped up their final projects as part of the Future Furniture studio. This studio, led by NuVuX Fellow Ben Johnson, combined principals from math, biology, humanities, electrical engineering, and art in the design of a lighting element. But it was no ordinary lighting element. The studio incorporated an up-cycling element - constraining students to use only paper cups, hot glue, and string in their designs. Using nothing but these few materials to encapsulate a lightbulb in any way they chose, they stretched their imaginations to create truly unique and site specific designs.
Students were deeply invested and engaged in the design process, moving between experimentation, sketching, prototyping, and installation as their pieces evolved and developed. Throughout the studio, students explored the emergent beauty of modular design.
Students also discovered the power of installations -- a temporary exploration to transform the atmosphere, mood, and vibe of a space. They learned how these positive, collaborative transformations have the ability to impact the way we think, develop, and interact with ourselves, our peers, and our wider community.
The lamps have become a launching point for innovative ideas. Some questions students have asked:
What if we scaled up the structure to become a modular greenhouse?
What if we scaled down the structure to the size of a cell for biomedical devices?
What if it was the size of a star and harvested solar energy?!
What would happen if we used cupcake liners instead of paper cups?
These questions are a great reminder that innovative ideas brought into reality can help spark collaboration, creative confidence, and a culture that values leaving a space better than they found it."
