Principal's Corner Newsletter
Woodstock Union High School and Middle School
September 14, 2019
Dear WUHSMS Community,
We launched the year with the newly adopted WUHSMS Portrait of a Graduate which defines the skills, knowledge, and personal habits that students will develop during their years in our district: academic excellence, critical problem-solving, skillful communication, self-direction, and stewardship. Over the coming weeks, I’m excited to share early-in-the-year examples of our students developing each aspect of the Portrait through diverse and engaging learning opportunities. This week, you’ll learn about senior Sophie Leggett’s Independent Study participating in the development of a new Wilderness Studies elective course. You’ll also hear how math teachers are engaging students in forming critical problem-solving and communication skills. Lastly, you’ll get a glimpse of the 8th grade American studies course using the Portrait as students develop “I promise” statements.
Best Regards,
Mr. Smail
Upcoming events
- Open House, September 26, 6:00 pm
- NO CLASSES, Teacher In-Service Day, October 7
- "Meet the Principal", October 14, 5:00pm
- WCUD School Board Meeting, October 14, 6:00pm
Senior Sophie Leggett Independent Study - Wilderness Studies
Critical Problem Solving and Skillful Communication in Math
Trigonometry students were posed the question, "How can you use mathematics to determine the height of something you can't actually measure?" We then spent three classes using four different methods to find the height of the flagpole. Students came up with several of these methods on their own. The four methods were using similar triangles with a mirror, using a clinometer to measure the angle and then using tangent to find the height, throwing a golf ball and modeling a quadratic function, and learning how to use a Biltmore stick which is what foresters use to measure heights of trees. The class discussed the limitations of all the methods and their accuracy.
All Geometry and Algebra 2 students worked on learning how to write conjectures. The Algebra 2 students were all asked to write conjectures on the correlation coefficient after they did an investigation into it. In Geometry, students wrote conjectures about rotating points 90 degrees. After they wrote their conjectures, students traded papers and either had to support the other person's conjecture with mathematical reasoning or had to provide a counterexample to prove the conjecture false. Then as an entire class, students used all their conjectures to come up with the definition of the correlation coefficient and the rule of rotating points 90 degrees.
Stewardship and Citizenship: Grade 8 American Studies
Students in each class have collaboratively arrived at "I promise..." statements for citizenship and stewardship of our middle school community. We began by revisiting the work they are doing in middle school Advisory on their own personal identities using "I am..." statements, then building on that by looking at our school's Portrait of a Graduate. Here are some examples:
- "I promise to be helpful and supportive of others, have a growth mindset, demonstrate responsibility, be curious, and be a problem solver."
- "I promise to be a loyal friend, a self directed leader, an understanding, assertive student. I promise to embrace diversity. and efficiently communicate with teachers and classmates."
- "I promise to be a leader of my class by always being respectful, responsible, committing to my classwork and persevering in all my problems."
Our next step is to develop an oath for citizenship of the United States. Should it be similar to these? Why or why not? What are the core values that we all hold in highest regard as Americans?
About us
Email: gsmail@wcsu.net
Website: wuhsms.org
Location: 100 Amsden Way, Woodstock, VT, USA
Phone: 8024571317
Facebook: facebook.com/WUHSMS/
Twitter: @wearewoodstock