Newtown High School Blog

Thank you to the Newtown High School PTSA for hosting a “welcome back to school” breakfast for the staff.

Assistant Principal Jason Hiruo and School Psychologist Tom Brant have recently had their piece on the Newtown High School China Delegation published.  You can read it here:  Connecticut School Psychologist

Twenty-eight members of the high school faculty, representing nearly every department and the administration, participated in two days of training that will help us to systematically share instructional practices to help students achieve at higher levels.  It was directly tied to making effective use of the release time that has been incorporated into this year’s calendar.

Please welcome the following people to the Newtown High School staff:

Brian Bisson (Special Education)
Tressa Cacace (English)
Joanne Chenkus (Spanish, one year)
Elaine Corbo (Attendance Secretary)
Paul Devine (Custodian)
Eric Ekman (Science- Earth Science)
Jason Ferrier (Social Studies)
Clare Francke (Guidance Secretary)
Robert Gendreau (Special Education)
Richard Giacin (Mathematics)
Kevin Grady (Latin)
Tara Kalberer (Science-Biology)
Kristofer Kelso (Spanish)
Lauren Marti (Guidance)
Jane Matson (Music)
Daniel McIlrath (Mathematics)
Rose Marie Mikasauskas (Latin, part time)
Lisa Porwitzki (Special Education)

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) is the organization that determines the accreditation status of secondary schools and colleges throughout the Northeast.  Most people are familiar with the visits that each school gets every ten years and the reports that are filed between those visits (updates at two and five years), but many are unaware that teachers from our school participate in evaluations of other schools. Read the rest of this entry »

Annette Chionilos has been selected as a Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction for excellence in teaching and for encouragement of and dedication to the academic success of students by the National Society of High School Scholars.  Ms. Chionilos was nominated by one of her students for this recognition.  Congratulations, Ms. Chionilos!

On the last day of the trip, the Newtown High School delegation made a cultural visit to the Temple Of Heaven, where emperors would visit three times a year to make sacrifices to the Gods to support agriculture.

The North Gate of the Forbidden City as seen from the Temple at the highest point of Jingshan Park.

Members of the Newtown High School delegation visited a silk processing plant and observed silk from its raw form to the finished product.

Members of the Newtown Public Schools Administration and Liaocheng #3 Middle School stand with some of the Liaocheng English teachers before the Farewell Luncheon.

Representatives of the Newtown Public Schools Administration met with members of the Liaocheng Administration (specifically Mrs. Song, Principal of the Liaocheng #3 Lower Middle School) to further our relationship by arranging a formal partnership between Liaocheng #3 Lower Middle School and Newtown Middle School and Reed Intermediate School.

Members of the Newtown High School delegation visited the Liaocheng #3 Middle School

Newtown High School’s Sister School, Liaocheng #3 Upper Middle School, has recently completed construction of their extensive science center, complete with a statue of Albert Einstein.

On the first day of the delegation’s visit to our Sister School in Liaocheng, a tour of the campus included stops at various classrooms and laboratories, including the calligraphy classroom pictured above.

An exhibit of student art was visited during the delegation’s visit to the Forbidden City.

Twenty-four members of the Newtown High School Faculty and Administration, with two members of the Newtown Public Schools Administration visited the Forbidden City in Beijing, China as part of their cultural indoctrination.  They will travel to Liaocheng, China to visit their Sister School and exchange ideas about education.  Jason Hiruo, Assistant Principal, met with Beijing University officials while the group above explored the Forbidden City and Tiananman Square.

The Newtown High School Delegation enjoys one if its first dinners in China.

Twenty-five teachers and administrators from Newtown High School arrived at Beijing International Airport today (Saturday afternoon in China, early Saturday morning in Newtown)

Congratulations to Jennifer Hoag, School Psychologist, and Suzanne Tyler, Social Worker, for their recent article in the latest edition of the Connecticut School Psychologist (CSP), published by the Connecticut Association of School Psychologists.  Look on page 18 – CSPMarch2010

Thank you to the Newtown High School PTSA for awarding $2000 in grant monies to teachers, departments, and organizations at NHS this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations to Newtown High School Choral Director John Harned for being selected to represent Connecticut in this year’s annual ‘Choral Directors of Note’ feature, to be published in the January issue of Choral Director Magazine.  We will let you know when the article comes out!

It’s out and you can find it here – http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/9059a52f

English Department Chairperson Jeanetta Miller was was recently published in the English Journal [99.3 (2010): 99-100].  You can read the piece on the Persistence of the Five-Paragraph Essay here: Miller Article- EJ

Mr. Pescarmona attended a College Board Workshop on Advanced Placement Psychology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston on December 4, 2009. It was a wonderful opportunity to converse with colleagues, receive updated curriculum information, test preparation strategies, relevant activities, and evaluation information for a new textbook.

Amanda Friedman recently presented at the 2009 The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention. The roundtable session “Class, Race, and Sex: Negotiating the Self and Other through Young Adult Literature” was a success! Read the rest of this entry »

For three days this fall, five of our teachers attended state-sponsored training at Western Connecticut State University to become cooperating teachers for education students and mentors to new teachers. Tim DeJulio and Maura Mancini of the Science department, Cathy Hall of the Math department, and Kristin English and Jacqui Kaplan of the English department all attended the training on November 16 and 17, 2009 and December 11, 2009. The training was part of the state’s new beginning teacher education and certification model, TEAM (to replace the BEST program). The teachers learned about the new beginning teacher mentoring program, the new learning modules for beginning teachers, and the requirements and protocols for taking on a student teacher. They participated in activities that helped them remember the pressures of being a new teacher, showed them how to effectively evaluate student teachers, and prepared them for the role of coach and mentor for new teachers. All five teachers found the training informative and exciting, and are pleased at the prospect of giving back to their profession.

Congratulations to Newtown High School automotive teacher Steve George for earning his ASE Brake Repair Certification.

Jeanetta Miller, Chairperson of the Newtown High School English Department, is published in this month’s edition of the “English Journal” from the National Council of Teachers of English. Her article, “Weaving Imagination Into An Academic Framework:  Attitudes, Assignments, And Assessments,” can be found here:  Jeanetta Miller – English Journal Congratulations, Jeanetta!

Congratulations to Mr. Jeremy O’Connell for successfully completing the Challenge Course Technician workshop and exam through Project Adventure. The certification is designed for individuals who operate standard introductory Project Adventure activities.

John Harned, the Choral Director at Newtown High School, will be directing the Berkshire League Honor Chorus at the Berkshire League Music Festival Concert this evening at Terryville High School, in Terryville, CT. The concert is at 8:00 P.M., and tickets will be available at the door. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is pleased to announce that Amanda Friedman will be speaking at the 2009 NCTE Annual Convention.

Ms. Friedman, (formerly) of University of Connecticut, Storrs, will be presenting during the roundtable session, “Class, Race, and Sex: Negotiating the Self and Other through Young Adult Literature.” Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Mr. Trent Harrison for helping us to raise money for the Invisible Children Project.

On Thursday October 8th, Newtown High School Assistant Principal Scott Clayton and NHS Senior Sam Kent traveled to New York City to attend the Fairfield County “Future Global Leaders” conference sponsored by the Council On Foreign Relations . The Council was founded in 1921 and is a non-partisan think tank. The objective of the Council is to provide up to date information and analysis about world events and American Foreign policy. Read the rest of this entry »

Staff at the high school have been learning the language of The Ladder of Inference.  The model, initially developed by Christopher Argyris and subsequently presented by Peter Senge, maps how we move from observable data to actions and how the process can be short-circuited by beliefs that we hold (which affects which data we choose to select from that which we observe).  Learn more here.

Congratulations to Assistant Principal Scott Clayton and World Language Teacher Laura Battisti who both completed the Westport Kiwanis Minuteman Triathlon this past weekend!

This summer, many of the Newtown High School faculty members read Mindset by Carol Dweck.  Click on the image above for a look at a brief description of the theory behind the book.

Newtown High School teachers Jolene Thompson, Maura Mancini, Laura Battisti, Kathy Swift, and Jay Daly, worked with Assistant Principal Jaime Rivera (far left) to develop materials to use with teachers to learn the ins and outs of the new student information system, Powerschool.  (Laura McLean, absent from the photograph, will also be one of the teacher trainers)

Chinese Teacher Ding Hong (lower left in photograph above) arrived from San Francisco, CA on Friday evening and has been settling in with his host family.  Today, he joined high school staff for lunch on the patio.  Prior to his arrival in Newtown, Mr. Ding spent four weeks in Beijing for a program orientation (organized by the College Board and Hanban) that included:  cultural adjustment and culture shock, cross cultural communication, U.S. culture and education, teaching of Chinese as a foreign language, Chinese culture topics (such as arts, food, holidays, etc), and using technology in the classroom.  This was followed by a ten day orientation program for Guest Teachers at Stanford University.  The Stanford program included:  foreign language education in the U.S., teaching standards for Chinese and the 5Cs, Lesson Design, Assessment, and Material Selection.  Welcome, Mr. Ding!

Five teachers from Newtown High School’s History Department spent three days in Gettysburg, PA touring the 27 square miles of battlefield from the Civil War. Read the rest of this entry »

Lee Keylock was “bombarded with poetry” when he was growing up in England. “Whether or not I liked it as a kid, I was exposed to it,” he says. It seems that all that exposure is paying off for Keylock, a graduate student in creative writing at Southern: he recently won both the 2009 Leo Connellan Prize for his poem “The Tattie Hawker” and the 2009 John Holmes Poetry Award for his poem “Font.” Read the rest of this entry »

Newtown High School Graduate Annette Wieczorek has returned to our school to complete the Student Teaching portion of her certification as an Art Educator. Cooperating Teacher Carol Pelligra has made arrangements for Annette to instruct Diane Dutchick’s Painting students. Annette is very pleased with her assignment at NHS. Good Luck Annette! And thank you Mrs. Pelligra and Mrs. Dutchick.