National History Day UPDATE

Of the 21 projects that our school sent to regional qualifiers, 13 have moved on to the state level on April 1! Congratulations to our winners, honorable mentions, and all of the students who worked hard to compete at the regional qualifiers!

National History Day

The 10th graders created some incredible "Taking a Stand" projects, this year's National History Day theme. Students worked individually or in groups to select a topic and conduct extensive research to connect the topic to the theme. Students then chose a medium to express their learning: exhibit, documentary, website, or performance. Despite delays from snow, the school judging and exhibition occurred before February break. Winners will be moving onto the regional competition on March 4th!

          

Congratulations to:

Individual Performances:

O. Blackmer: Bread and Roses Strike

Group Performances:

I. Dirks, S. Fallon, and G. Ward: Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners

A. Friedman and E. Patz: AIM Alcatraz

A. Garrido and M. Osman: Loving v. Virginia, 1967

Individual Documentaries:

C. Steinberg: Cesar Chavez

Group Documentaries:

R. Horrigan and B. Shapiro: William Stokoe

L. O'Donnell and J. Schwartz: Larry Kramer

E. Friedman and L. Miller: Angela Davis

Individual Exhibits:

W. Vallatini: Eradication of Smallpox

Z. Taub: National Park Service

Group Exhibits:

A. Hwang, J. Rudolph, and J. Shia: Julia Butterfly Hill

T. Barrett and N. Mutter: Dorothea Dix

A. Blake, A. Mahoney, and K. Shannon: Louis Braille

A. Lin and K. Zhu: Congress and Radical Reconstruction

R. Goodale, N. Schwartz, and J. Woodnorth: Stephen Biko

Individual Website:

E. Payne: Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

E. Lee: The Sullivan Principles

C. Nwodo: Diane Nash

Group Website:

N. Malouf, T. Osborne, and R. Weitzel: Che

K. Guttilla and N. Yee: Rachel Carson

E. Erickson, I. Lai, and I. Li: Ida B. Wells

Feeling the Love

With Valentine's right around the corner, it's important to reflect on what love really looks like. This month's featured student club is "Take Back the Night". Their goal is to raise awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault by shattering the silence to stop the violence. Keep an eye out for their annual fundraiser event.

Follett Challenge

Support our school's entry, "One School, One Book, One Day", in this year's Follett Challenge and help us win $30,000! One vote per email address each day this week. You can cast one vote per email each day from January 23 through 27 (that's a lot of votes!) so be sure to vote every day! View our video and cast your votes at follettchallenge.com/videos/723. 

MLK

Martin Luther King Day gives us a time to reflect on the astounding impact of a regular citizen to effect great change in society. Dr. King encouraged people to fight darkness with light and to conquer hate with love. Are you up for the challenge?

In his book of collected writings, Strength to Love, Dr. King wrote that, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" If you want to do more to answer that question, join the Choose to be Nice Club and throw kindness around like confetti!

Blues in the Schools with Toby Walker

Today, we had the incredible opportunity to host blues musician, Toby Walker, thanks to a grant from the Needham Education Foundation. This funding allowed Mr. Walker to do a blues workshop with Mr. Zucchi's guitar class where the students were not only amazed by Mr. Walker's skills, but completely engaged in learning the songs to play along with him!


The afternoon performances included not only fantastic music, but also provided a glimpse into the Jim Crow history that shaped it.


Mr. Walker shared moving stories and literally pulled students from the classes of Mr. Ames, Mr. Dodge, Ms. Nehill, Mr. Walker, Mr. Wexler, right into the action.


Thank you, Toby Walker! This was an experience that we will not soon forget!!

Happy 2017!

May your 2017 books be filled with action, adventure, mystery, robots, aliens, and romance!

What's your reading resolution for 2017?