ELHS Extravaganza Roars on for Maddie!

For the past five years,  ELHS has hosted an Extravaganza on the day before our December holiday break.   The Extravaganza is essentially a telethon featured on TVs throughout the school and on Public TV.   The purpose is to raise money for a worthy cause.  The planning of the Extravaganza is a time intensive project and is usually managed through a group of students in conjunction with a graded WISE project.

This past year, our community has been rallying to support a very special young lady in town who is fighting a courageous battle to defeat cancer.   A group of students were so impressed with her courage and determination that they wanted to contribute to Maddie's Wish Fund.  Maddie and her family had generously requested that people wishing to help out should send toys and raise funds for other children fighting cancer, rather than give to Maddie directly.  Normally, the Extravaganza is the main event of the day, but in the spirit of community service, this WISE group wanted to incorporate projects that would serve and touch as many people in our community as possible.

The WISE group consisted of General Managers: Kathryn Taylor, Rachel Uricchio and Megan Dugan,  Graphic Designer: Jillian Eller and Photographer: Lauryn Eberle.   One of the requirements of the WISE project is to incorporate something that you are interested in pursuing as a future career.  In taking on these roles,  each WISE participant was able to gain experience in their desired field.

In addition to the events on December 23rd, the girls ran a pasta supper with the help of the Niantic Rotary, and a Dunk Tank during lunch.  Thanks to Mr. Susi, Mr. Provost, Mr. Mahon, Mr. Bagos, Mr. Nazzaro and Mrs. Carney-Brush for being so willing to sit on the dunking board and become a target!

On the day of the Extravaganza,  everybody in the school wore a bright orange T-shirt as a show of solidarity.  How amazing it was to view the sea of orange when the school community was working in the Commons area!  Students were split up into groups of Freshmen/Sophomore and Junior/Seniors.  While the Juniors/Seniors were watching their portion of the Extravaganza talent,  the Freshmen/Sophomore group was busy in the Commons working on community services projects and vice versa.   The community service portion began with a video to highlight cancer awareness and featured Maddie and her sister and friends singing the song Stand by You by Rachel Platten.   The community service projects consisted of creating fleece blankets for the Yale Children's Hospital, writing notes of gratitude and support for active veterans and creating reindeer ornaments and snowflakes to brighten up area nursing homes.   In all, 173 Blankets were delivered to Yale Children's Hospital and $2500 was raised for Maddie's Wish Fund!

The entertainment provided by participants in the Extravaganza was extra special!   Acts ranged from dancing and singing to magic and comedy.   A good time was had by all and lots of good work was completed that day by the entire student body.

The entire project took hundreds of hours to plan and the group was very thankful for the generous donations provided through our Printshop run by Rachel Redding (material for blankets and the orange t-shirts) and the Niantic Rotary (money and volunteers for the Pasta Supper).  In an email to the staff the following day,  Mrs. Carney-Brush thanked the following staff members for their help:

Rachel Redding, Matt Laconti, Shannon Saglio, Jen D’Elia, Rachel Michaud, Kim Thompson, Freda Gianakos, Anthony Maiese, Karin Carlson, Sue Johnston, Grant Place, Joanna Hildebrand, Mat O'Grady, Linda Foote, and Lauren Allyn.

The WISE group was very pleased with the outcome and their wish to highlight the positive character of our school community was accomplished to the highest degree. The project was supervised by Faculty member Jen Carney-Brush and the outcome was a great success.   Well done Katie, Rachel, Megan, Jillian and Lauryn!

Hour of Code

During the week of December 7-11th,  the staff and students of East Lyme High School were invited to participate in the Hour of Code.   The Hour of Code is an International Initiative to motivate students to participate in some kind of coding activity so they are exposed to the basics of Computer Science.  There are many companies that contribute to this initiative, including Google, Microsoft. Code.org (which is comprised of a large number of partners), MIT, UC Berkley, Codeacademy and Khan Academy and Tynker to name a few.   Links to Coding activities are available on our East Lyme High School Library Resource Page under Maker Movement Resources and then Coding Activities and Coding:  http://eastlymehs.libguides.com/makermovement.

Throughout the week, teachers bring in a good variety of classes to the library to participate in Coding activities:

Madame Casey's French classes created French holiday cards using Scratch, a coding  and animation program created for students in K-12 grades by educators and students at MIT.

Mrs. Murphy's  Computer Science classes and Mrs. Mickle's Science classes came in and tried a number of different activities.  In addition, Mrs. Murphy teaches an App Inventor Class where students are coding every day!   Mrs. Mickle brought her science classes to visit  Mrs. Murphy's App Inventor class the following week so they could witness coding in action.


For those who have coded in the past,  we had them try a challenge from Karel the Robot, a program developed by NCLAB.



Mrs. Thompson's  PE classes visited the Code.org sites, where they were able to view a tutorial video and then participate in a variety of activities related to Minecraft, Star Wars and Frozen.  

 

 

 

The library houses two Robots called Dot and Dash, who were introduced to a group of students from Mrs. Nowak English and Mrs. Hansen's Math classes. Some students worked with an iPad app called Wonder to control the robots.

 

 

 And the fun continued after the official Hour of Code Week in December!   On December 21st, Mrs. Brake brought her math class in to do activities on the Code. org site and on December 22nd,  two more math teachers, Mr. Templeton and Mrs. Hanson signed their classes up to face the challenge of coding.

Thanks to all that participated.    The activities are available online all year round, so teachers can introduce the concept of coding to their classes at their own convenience.  Students and teachers alike were having a really great time completing the challenges provided.   

Veteran's Day - A Day to Remember!

  

East Lyme Public Schools chooses to hold classes on Veteran's Day in an effort to educate our students on the importance of our Veteran's commitment and sacrifice to their country.  At East Lyme High School, teachers and staff take this task very seriously.  This year they went above and beyond to honor our local veterans!

Displays

To begin with, family and friends honored their favorite veterans by displaying their names on the front window of the Frances Hart Ewers Library.  Members of the National Honor Society helped to decorate the window. Library Staff, Christine Maxfield, Christine Greeley and Jan Dargel also assisted in setting up Veteran related displays in the library, which included the front window, a display of items that could be donated to veterans in a glass case and veteran related books..

 In addition,  red, white and blue stars were displayed at the main entrance with words of encouragement written on them.  These stars were sold by the National Honor Society and their goal was to build a flag filled with inspiration.  The National Honor Society also sponsored Jeans day, where teachers donate $5 to a cause for the opportunity to wear jeans to school.  Between the two fundraisers, they raised over $545.00 for the Vet House managed by the  New London Homeless Hospitality Center.

 

Curricular Connections

The Big Idea - Why do we celebrate Veteran's and why are Veteran's so important to our country?

In Rachel Michaud's Drawing 1 class, students learned about Maya Lin, a young Yale Architecture student, whose proposed design of a Vietnam Veteran Memorial was accepted over many prestigious architecture firms from around the world as the design for the national memorial in Washington D.C.  Students were asked to design their own Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which were displayed in the lobby of the gymnasium for all to view as they entered into our assembly.

In Kelly Burton-Jones' World Language classroom,  there was a bulletin board decorated to honor veterans in Spanish.  Gracias a los veteranos!   Pictures of former students who are serving in the Air Force and family members of Mrs. Burton-Jones were posted.

Kim Thompson's Health class talked about the history of rations; how they have changed over the years and what that meant for the soldiers because of the weight they had to carry and how nutritious and appetizing they were since it was all they had to eat.

Amy Fabry's Freshmen Academy class discussed substance abuse and suicide and how it applies to the veterans.  Students viewed personal video accounts from veterans who have suffered from PTSD, substance abuse and suicide to get a more meaningful perspective.  The class also discussed what organizations are doing to try and help our veterans transition back into society after experiencing the atrocities of war.

Abby Catsam gave her English students a chance to share with their class a reflection about veterans in their own family.

The Assembly

The entire high school population gathered in the gymnasium to honor our special guests: veterans (that included family members of staff and students) and honored guests from the Vet House in New London.  Staff and students were encouraged to wear red, white and blue, which added a special effect to the audience view. The Music Department lead by Anthony Maiese, Sue Johnston and Karin Carlson provided excellent music from members of our band, marching band, symphony orchestra and choral groups.   The marching band's color guard presented the colors (flag) and escorted the veterans in and out of the gymnasium. English teacher Scott Mahon sang a touching solo of Superman by Five for Fighting.  I stood near student Quentin Hazen who commented after Mr. Mahon's performance,  "that was really deep".

 

There was a core committee who organized the assembly lead by Social Studies teacher Henry Kydd.   The program honored each branch of the military by having students introduce a guest from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, who then recited their service creed.  Throughout the program the audience was entertained with selections from the high school band, orchestra and chorus.   Our symphony orchestra had a special treat when they were lead by Lew Buckley, retired director of the U.S. Coast Guard Band.  Mr. Buckley also spoke to the students about the importance of honoring veterans everyday and when they become old enough to vote, to keep two things in mind: do not send our troops into battle unless it is absolutely necessary and take care of our veterans when they return.  After the assembly, our honored guests were treated to a luncheon prepared by the Culinary students.

The assembly was an amazing event with students listening respectfully to all pieces of the program and the appreciation for our veterans sacrifice and commitment was resounding.   I left this assembly thinking this is one the best things we do for our school and our community and I was so happy that I attended school that day.

I was very impressed with the diversity of activities throughout the school with one goal in mind,  to make our veterans feel special and honored.

Mr.  Kydd sent an email the following day giving thanks all those that participated in planning the assembly:

Scott Mahon, Lori Singer, Shannon Saglio, Matthew LaConti, Joanna Hildebrand, Anthony Maiese, Karin Carlson, Susan Johnston, Grant Place, Mike Hewitt, Frank Burdick, Eloise Gada, Jeff Handler, Rachel Redding, Christine Greeley, Kathleen Sasso, Christine Maxfield, Colleen Foster, Rachel Michaud, Victoria Chong, Alexa Wise, Megan McKeith, Arianna Tsikitas, Dennis Carambot, Piper Baine, Ella Czuba (Taps- inside), Jared Subiano (Taps - outside), Marching Band, Band, Woman's Chorale, Choir, Orchesta, ELHS Symphony Orchestra, Anna Yuhas (Color Guard), Emily Halleck (Color Guard), Jordan Osterloh (Color Guard), Art and Tech Students, Culinary Students, and the National Honor Society.

This week, members of the National Honor Society visited the New London Hospitality Center to drop off food, clothing, toiletries and the monetary donation collected.  The Vet House staff was so grateful and wished to thank all that contributed.

As the Library Media Specialist at East Lyme High School, I am a constant witness to teachers and students participating in a wide array of amazing activities.  Activities that promote student inquiry and engagement and strive to develop skills and character that relate to our school’s mission, which is to educate students to be responsible, independent and productive lifelong learners.   There are so many things going on behind closed doors that should be shared with administrators, educators, parents and the community as a whole.

The purpose of this blog is to highlight these activities and share with the world the good things going on behind the scenes at East Lyme High School.   My goal is to publish a monthly post for this purpose.  Feel free to comment and share if you know of other activities that are related.

Kathleen

Senior Physics – Analysis of Motion vs. Time
Brad Normand

What’s the Big Idea?  - Understanding the Concepts of Kinematics

Using a Vernier Motion Detector, laptops, Logger Pro, and a Vernier computer interface, Mr. Normand’s Physics class plotted real time graphs of their motion as they moved across the room.  The motion detector measures the time it takes for a high-frequency sound to travel from the detector to the person and then return.  Using the value of time (how long it took to travel to the detector and back) and the speed of sound, the Vernier computer interface can define the distance to the object and thus the position of the object.  Students were challenged to move back and forth in front of the motion detector so that the real-time graph of their motion matched a graph that was given to them. They had to predict how to move based on the graph and analyze the results of the real-time graph creator to make improvements.

 In addition to position-time graphs, students were asked to analyze and match velocity-time graphs.  By the end of the activity, students were able to interpret the graphs by determining the type of motion based on the slope of the lines in the graphs.  

The students are always fully engaged in this activity and particularly enjoy viewing the real-time graphing effect as they move across the room.