On June 11^th at 6:00 PM in the high school auditorium the athletic department is excited to welcome Molly McCarthy, Assistant Athletic Director at CCSU to speak to parents and students about college athletics.  Her presentation will include information on recruiting, the NCAA Eligibility Center, high school academic requirements, amateur standing, scholarships, and transfers.  For more information please click on the link below to view the flyer or contact the WHS athletic department.

Future Educators Association - Organization for Final Exam Session

Date: Monday - June 10, 2013

Time: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Location: WHS Media Center

This session is designed to help students prepare and get organized for Final Exams.

Final Exam Tutoring

Start Date: Tuesday - June 11, 2013 through Friday, June 14, 2013

Time: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Location: WHS Media Center

This event is hosted by students in Future Educators Association, and the National, English, French, Spanish and Italian Honor Societies and is designed to assist students with Final Exam preparation.

Although the year is wrapping up, the Wethersfield High School Interact Club is still very busy.  Just this month, we celebrated being chartered by Rotary International, an accomplishment that could not be achieved without the support of our Rotarian Advisor, Julie Freel.  In addition, we are running our last fundraiser of the year, a Penny War to help us raise $1,000 for ShelterBox, an organization that provides emergency shelter and supplies to families that become homeless due to natural disasters or wars.  For more information on the WHS Interact Club or our ShelterBox Fundraiser contact Nella Szilagyi, club advisor, at nszilagyi@wethersfield.k12.ct.us.

Click the following link to launch the video:
http://ttc.wethersfield.k12.ct.us/SafeVideos/Video.aspx?id=M3vXYAwW1-0

Ckick to enlarge the image

Mrs. Pamela Jones, first grade teacher at Emerson-Williams School was the narrator for the ballet Tales of Peter Rabbit held on May 4th at The University of St. Joseph in West Hartford.  When Mrs. Jones was asked by Rachel Vasel, a former student and now a sixth grader at Emerson-Williams and a ballerina in the Ballet Theater Company, to narrate, Mrs. Jones graciously volunteered.  There were two performances of the ballet, and Mrs. Brenda McLaughlin, Reading and Language Arts consultant at Emerson-Williams also attended.

(click to enlarge the images) (Rachel Vasel & Pamela Jones)

(from left to right) Pamela Jones, Rachel Vasel, Brenda McLaughlin

Please support WHS Safe Graduation by purchasing one of these great tumblers.  The cost is $10 and proceeeds will go toward the Safe Grad celebration for the class of 2013.  If you have questions, please contact Anne Emmanuel at 860-721-6732 or Deb Lessard at 860-529-2845.  To access the order form, please click on this link.  Thank you for your support!

Please mark your calendar.  Below are the dates for SDMS Breakfast Celebrations

Wednesday, June 19^th – 8th Grade Indigo Team Breakfast

Thursday, June 20^th – 8th Grade Magenta Team Breakfast

Friday, June 21^st - 8th Grade Turquoise Team Breakfast

Breakfasts begin at 8 am and end at approximately 10 am.

SDMS celebrated the outstanding reading accomplishments of 70 seventh and eighth graders who read a significant number of the 2013 Teen Nutmeg Book Award nominees on May 1, 2013.  The luncheon was sponsored by school principal Mr. Cook, the Library Media Center and the SDMS Literacy Committee.

The week prior, all SDMS students who read one or more Nutmeg book nominees voted for their favorite title using a Google form on the school’s iPads, the school's first foray into digital voting. A total of 422 SDMS students voted. The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen was SDMS students' favorite title, followed by Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry, which came in second place.

Those students who read a significant number of the book nominees were invited to a celebratory luncheon and were the first to see the new 2014 Teen Nutmeg Nominees list. Students enjoyed lunch and watched video book trailers on the new titles. Students were able to check out one of the new books as well.

"The Nutmeg Book Award encourages children in grades 4-12 to read quality literature and to choose their favorite from a list of ten nominated titles. Jointly sponsored by theConnecticut Library Association (CLA) and the Connecticut Association of School Librarians (CASL), the Nutmeg Committee is comprised of children's librarians and school library media specialists who are members of their sponsoring organizations."

Join us on May 29, 2013 for the Wethersfield High School Safe Graduation FUNdraiser

20% OF OUR SALES BETWEEN 6 AND 9 p.m.  WILL BE DONATED TO WHS 2013 SAFE GRADUATION!

SPREAD THE WORD TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!   

 Visit www.ritasrockyhill for information and directions.

20 Wethersfield High School students attended the 2013 DECA International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, California from April 23 – April 28.  Approximately 16,000 students participated and competed in this conference which serves as a showplace for skills learned by students in the marketing education instructional program in their high school.  Students earned the right to attend this national conference by competing and winning in the state competition. Overall, the Wethersfield DECA group was very successful and had one team receive “top 10” recognition medals and 12 students placed in the top 10% of their national competitive event.

James Cavasino, Kyle MacRae, Connor Trahan
Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan - top 10 finalist medals

James Cavasino, Kyle MacRae, Connor Trahan
Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan - medals for presentation (means their score was over 90%)

Kyle MacRae
Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan - Medal for test score (means this score was over 90%)

Certificates of Excellence (top 10%)
Kelly McDonald, Christie Slayton
Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan

Danielle Peruta
Business Services Operations Research

Stephan Ballard, Sam Baldwin, William DelMastro
Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan

Geoffey Skowronek, Connor Jones
Travel and Tourism Management Team Decision Making

Miranda Carlone
Principles of Hospitality and Tourism Marketing

2013 DECA Awards

2013 Conference Winners

2013 State Conference Awards

DECA
www.deca.org 
DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe.

WHS Marketing Students & Teacher Joanne Ricardi at 2013 DECA Conference

Wethersfield Public Schools is proud to announce that our own Kristen Mucinskas, an English Teacher at Wethersfield High School, will be awarded the Rookie of the Year Award for Excellence in First-Year Course Instruction by the University of Connecticut's Early College Experience (ECE) program.  UConn ECE is a concurrent enrollment program that allows motivated high school students to take UConn courses at their high schools for both high school and college credit.  There are currently 40 students at Wethersfield High School enrolled in UConn ECE courses.  

"I've watched Kristen work so hard on this all year, and last year as well, and I want to add my congratulations!  Great news for Kristen, and a tremendous benefit for our students who now earn real, transferable college credit in the ECE classroom."  - Deborah L Schwager, School Counselor, Wethersfield High School

An evening of recognizing outstanding instruction and administration, along with celebrating a successful year of UConn ECE will be held on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. at the Alumni Center, UConn Storrs Campus.  Family, friends and colleagues are invited to attend this celebration of excellence in education.  Congratulations, Ms. Mucinskas!

Kristen Mucinskas, Wethersfield High School

What is UConn Early College Experience?

UConn Early College Experience (ECE) is a concurrent enrollment program that allows motivated high school students to take UConn courses at their high schools for both high school and college credit. Every course taken through UConn ECE is equivalent to the same course at the University of Connecticut. Students benefit by taking college courses in a warm setting that is both familiar and conducive to learning.

High school instructors who have been certified through the University of Connecticut serve as adjunct faculty members and teach UConn ECE courses.

Established in 1955, UConn Early College Experience is the nation's longest running concurrent enrollment program and is nationally accredited by The National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP).

Wethersfield Public Schools is pleased to announce the 55th Annual Spring Art Show.  The opening reception is scheduled for Tuesday, April 30 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Keeney Memorial Cultural Center on Main Street.  The Exhibit dates will run from April 30- through May 30 and the Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Sunday's from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.  Please take some time to come and enjoy these beautiful works of art presented to you by the students of Wethersfield Public Schools.

Mr. Setaro's fifth grade class at Charles Wright Elementary School has entered a national video contest and we need your help!  We created a video inspired by the book City Of Orphans by the Newbury Award winning author Avi.  If our video gets the most votes, Avi will come to Wethersfield to visit our classroom!  This is a great opportunity and we would be thrilled to meet such a famous author!

Here’s how you can help…

Visit http://www.avi-writer.com/video-contest/12 and vote for the video from Charles Wright School in Wethersfield called Stuck in the Alley Way.  You must click on the stars above the video to vote. We hope you will give us 5 stars!  The 1^st round of online "favorites" voting is April 8-13.  If we are one of the top three videos we will move on to the final round of voting from April 22-26.

Thank you for your help!  We appreciate your help and hope it pays off for us with a visit from Avi!

THANK YOU!

Mr. Setaro’s 5^th Grade Class

Charles Wright School

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Wethersfield Walks in Honor of Newtown: Cultivating Solutions Within our Community, the community walk-a-thon sponsored by the Wethersfield Schools Parent Council shceduled for this Sunday, May 19 from 9 am to 12 noon has been POSTPONED.  We are very sorry for the late notice and appreciate all the support for the walk and the cause.  Details of the new date for the walk will be available in the next few weeks.

Sponsored by The Wethersfield Schools Parent Council...
WETHERSFIELD WILL WALK IN HONOR OF NEWTOWN

Cultivating Solutions Within Our Community

Sunday, May 19, 2013

9am to 12 noon

Wethersfield High School Track

100% of proceeds will be donated to Wethersfield Public Schools to fund comprehensive professional development for staff and district wide student programs dedicated to the development of healthy children, community connectedness, and safe schools.

The walk-a-thon is structured to allow walkers to choose their distance and when they start walking.  Walkers can begin their 1 mile (stay on the WHS track) or 5K walk (goes into Wintergreen Woods) anytime between 9:00 a.m. - noon. Watch backpacks, email and Facebook for more information.

Interested in volunteering?  We are looking for help with preparation for the walk and the day of the event.   Jobs include include publicity, sponsorships, logistics,  and soliciting donations of goods (ie - water, food, etc). Contact Martha Conneely at conneelymartha@sbcglobal.net or Barb Bellas at barbara.bellas@sbcglobal.net  for more information 

Start organizing your friends and join in for this great cause!

Find WSPC on Facebook at

http://www.facebook.com/WethersfieldSchoolsParentCouncil

Click to enlarge the flyer 

Zumba™ Fitness Fundraiser to benefit the Wethersfield Safe Graduation Party!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

9/11 Memorial Gym

Pitkin Community Center

30 Greenfield Street

Wethersfield, CT 06109

11:30~12:00 Registration

12~1:30 Class

Featuring Licensed Instructors

Cynthia Riccio and Sheryl Fallon

$15 Adults, $5 Students, 100% of the proceeds will go to Safe Grad!

Five Wethersfield schools are participating in the Smarter Balanced Pilot Test this week.  This voluntary Pilot Test is the second of two large-scale tryouts of the new online assessment prior to implementation in the 2014-15 school year.  The new Smarter Balanced assessment makes use of computer adaptive testing (CAT), which is more precise and efficient than the traditional paper-and-pencil assessments used in many states.  Smarter Balanced assessments go beyond multiple-choice questions to include extended response and technology enhanced items, as well as performance tasks that allow students to demonstrate critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

Performance tasks challenge students to apply their knowledge and skills to respond to complex real-world problems. They can best be described as collections of questions and activities that are coherently connected to a single theme or scenario. These activities are meant to measure capacities such as depth of understanding, writing and research skills, and complex analysis, which cannot be adequately assessed with traditional fixed-form assessment questions.

Teachers, principals, and parents can receive results from computerized assessments in weeks, not months.  Faster results mean that teachers can use the information from optional interim assessments throughout the school year to differentiate instruction and better meet the unique needs of their students.

Highcrest Elementary School recently hosted two special visitors. On Friday, March 1 CT Superior Court Judge and Wethersfield resident Lisa K. Morgan visited Highcrest as part of Read Across America Day. Judge Morgan read stories to the students and then answered their ques-tions about her job and the court system. The students loved learning about the judicial process and hearing some great stories! 

Also as part of Read Across America Day, in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday and school spirit day students and staff at Highcrest School dressed as their favorite story book characters. Pictured from left to right are Mrs. Silver, Reading Consultant; Mrs. Harvey, Principal; and Mrs. Meyers, second grade teacher.

On Friday, February 15, Wethersfield native and PBSKids star Steve Roslonek ("Mr. Steve") performed his song "Kindness" at an all-school assembly focusing on kindness. Fourth grade students made posters and the whole school sang along as Steve performed. Students sang along with Steve.

Magenta Team students at SDMS did a phenomenal job on their team's community service project, benefitting South Park Inn homeless shelter in Hartford.  They kicked off their project with a presentation by State Representative Russ Morin and Brian Baker, Assistant Director of South Park Inn.  Students learned about the various needs for which the shelter helps to provide and also about the importance of helping those who are less fortunate.  They then brought in donations of health and hygiene supplies, and items to make lunches for the shelter.  On Thursday, March 21st, students worked to make an amazing 847 bagged lunches for the shelter.  The lunches and hygiene supplies were delivered to South Park Inn by a small group of students and teachers on Friday, March 22nd.  Seeing the shelter firsthand and the true need for their donations was eye-opening and rewarding for students.  One student stated, "I didn't realize how much our donations meant until saw the shelter and saw that the people looked just like you or me.  I hope to do more in the future for people who are in need.  It's easy to forget, but if everyone does something small once in a while, it can make a big difference."  SDMS Magenta Team students should be very proud of their hard work for such a worthy cause!

On Monday, March 25^th, SDMS hosted a special book fair at Barnes and Noble Bookstore in West Hartford center from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. The event was organized to support SDMS’ focus on literacy awareness and as a school fundraiser. Students and parents who attended the event listened to a selection of songs by several members of the school’s Chorale group. Additionally, a variety of 7^th and 8^th grade artwork, as well as several poetry anthologies written by students from Mrs. DeGray’s Language Arts classes, was on display throughout the store.

As a special event, several lucky students received a Nook as part of the Horace Mann Read to Succeed Nook Giveaway program. The Read to Succeed program was sponsored by the Horace Mann Company to encourage students to read beyond their required school reading. Students were eligible to enter the raffle by tracking their independent reading at home each week. They needed to read for a total of 40 minutes each night. Over 30 students participated in the reading incentive program, with 12 students reading all 8 weeks of the program. Horace Mann donated the Nooks that were given away to students and staff at the event. Student winners included Autumn Weatherspoon, Elaney Ortiz, Adrian Beldzinski, Monique Gardon, Maya Mulholland, Molly Desrochers, Erin Van Leuvan, and Rachel Bahonth. SDMS staff member Ben Sikora was also a lucky recipient of the Nook giveaway program.

Barnes and Noble will contribute a percentage of the sales from bookstore purchases, as well as from the café, during that time to support future student and literacy programs at SDMS. We had a great turn out for the event and want to thank all the parents, students, and staff who attended for their support.

CROSSROADS, sponsored by The Town of Wethersfield Social and Youth Services Department, in collaboration with Silas Deane Middle School, Wethersfield Parks and Recreation Department, the Keane Foundation and the Capital Area Substance Abuse Council, is designed to offer after-school enrichment activities to all interested 7th and 8th grade students at Silas Deane Middle School and Corpus Christi School. The goal of CROSSROADS is to provide this age group with after school leisure time activity exploration and development within the framework of a primary prevention model.

Please click on the link above to read more.

What is UConn Early College Experience?

UConn Early College Experience (ECE) is a concurrent enrollment program that allows motivated high school students to take UConn courses at their high schools for both high school and college credit. Every course taken through UConn ECE is equivalent to the same course at the University of Connecticut. Students benefit by taking college courses in a warm setting that is both familiar and conducive to learning.

High school instructors who have been certified through the University of Connecticut serve as adjunct faculty members and teach UConn ECE courses.

Established in 1955, UConn Early College Experience is the nation's longest running concurrent enrollment program and is nationally accredited by The National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP).

What UConn ECE courses does WHS currently offer?

ENGL 1010: Seminar in Academic Writing: Four credits. Instruction in academic writing through interdisciplinary reading. Assignments emphasize interpretation, argumentation, and reflection. Revision of formal assignments and instruction on grammar, mechanics and style.

ENGL 1011: Seminar in Writing Through Literature: Four credits. Instruction in academic writing through literary reading. Assignments emphasize interpretation, argumentation, and reflection. Revision of formal assignments and instruction on grammar, mechanics and style. (http://ece.uconn.edu/courses/subj/eng.php 

Judge Constance Epstein read to Emerson-Williams students on Read Across America Day. Judge Epstein is a judge at the Middlesex Superior Court in Middletown. After she read, she answered students' questions about being a judge and the court system. The students were very excited about this event.

 SDMS Teachers Learn to Embrace the Muck

Language Arts and Social Studies teachers at Silas Deane Middle School had the opportunity to spend three days working with Cornelius Minor, a staff developer for the Columbia Reading and Writing Project, on implementing strategies to improve cognitive rigor for students in their classrooms. As a former 7th grade Language Arts teacher, Minor is very familiar with the difficulties facing middle school teachers. Over the course of an intensive three day professional development, Minor offered many strategies to better engage students and help them “lift the level” of their work.

Click here for more

Older students paired up with younger students to read Dr. Seuss books to celebrate his birthday at Charles Wright School on Friday March 1, 2013.  Students had a variety of Dr. Seuss stories to choose from including several interactive books created for the iPad.  

Photo Slideshow with Music - http://www.wethersfield.k12.ct.us/cf_media/index.cfm?t=1&g=108

Photo Slideshow (no music) - http://www.wethersfield.k12.ct.us/cf_media/index.cfm?t=1&g=107