THETFORD ACADEMY'S
PARENT, FAMILY & COMMUNITY CALENDAR
October 6 - 13, 2008
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Scroll down to see our TEACHING & LEARNING section, following the Events & TA News. There’s also a section with Community News at the very end of this message.
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EVENTS THIS WEEK:
MONDAY, OCTOBER 6:
MENU: Make your own tortilla with beef, chicken or refried beans
• NECAP TESTING FOR GRADES 7 AND 8 BEGINS: Middle school students begin testing during B block with the first of three Reading tests. The NECAP testing will continue for middle school daily during B block 10/6-9, 13-14, and for the 8th grade 10/15-16. Students who may be absent during the testing will be provided opportunities to make-up testing missed.
• College representative:Warren Wilson College (NC) 11:00
• Junior Varsity Girls Soccer: TA @ Oxbow 4:00. Bus at 3:00. There is no Junior Varsity Boys game as rescheduling plans with Lisbon fell through late Friday. The boys will practice at 4:00.
• Middle School Girls and Boys Soccer: Haverhill @ TA 4:00.
• VSAC "PAYING FOR COLLEGE" NIGHT: Headed for college or other training? Wondering how you're going to pay for it? Worried you might not be able to? You and your parents are invited to a FREE workshop offered by the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation in collaboration with TA's Guidance Office in the Shark Tank Theater at 6:30.
Topics include: types of financial aid, how to apply, family contribution, how aid is packaged, and alternative sources of aid. The workshop will last about one-and-a-half hours with time for questions. No advance registration is necessary. For more information, contact the Guidance Office or call VSAC at 800-882-4166. All New Hampshire families are encouraged to attend.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7:
MENU:Chicken curry or Asian style with rice
• ASSEMBLY: Musical performance by Nick Phelps ’10, and faculty member Meghan Sterling.
• NECAP TESTING FOR JUNIORS CONTINUES: Juniors will test during A + B blocks with the second of two Reading tests and the first Math test.
• NECAP TESTING FOR GRADES 7 AND 8 CONTINUES: Middle school students contiue testing during B block with the second of three Reading tests.
• High School Cross Country: TA @ Hanover (at Storrs Pond) G @ 4:15/ B @ 4:45. Bus at 2:15.
• Varsity Girls Soccer: Chelsea @ TA 4:30. Chelsea no longer has a boys’ team. The boys will play at Green Mtn. Valley Thursday, 10/16 at 4:00 to replace this game.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8:
MENU: Shepherd’s pie
• NECAP TESTING FOR GRADES 7 AND 8 CONTINUES: Middle school students contiue testing during B block with the final Reading test.
• NECAP TESTING FOR JUNIORS CONCLUDES: Juniors will test during D block with the second of two Math. Hartford – PM tech students will take the Writing 1 test during C block.
• ACADEMIC SUPPORT 2:05-3:00with busing available at TES at 3:00
• Middle School Girls and Boys Soccer: TA @ South Royalton 4:30. Bus at 3:15.
• PROJECT GRADUATION: The Project Graduation Parents' Meeting will be from 7:00-9:00 pm in the TA Library. Please help us plan; new ideas and willing bodies are needed and welcome! This group plans to meet each Wednesday evening at 7:00 in this location from now on.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9:
MENU: Chili and cornbread
• NECAP TESTING FOR GRADES 7 AND 8 CONTINUES: Middle school students contiue testing during B block with the first of three Math tests.
• Middle School Cross Country: @ TA 4:30.
• THETFORD ACADEMY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING: The trustees will hold their monthly meeting at 7:00 in the TA Library. All meetings of the Board are open to the public.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10:
MENU: Stuffed crust pizza three ways
• Mr. Deffner’s 7th grade History classes visit the Thetford Center Cemetery during their class time, with Valley & Village Quest coordinator Steve Glazer. Thank you to those parents who provide transportation support.
•Junior Varsity and Varsity Boys Soccer: TA @ Woodsville 4:00. Bus at 2:00.
• Junior Varsity Girls Soccer: Hanover @ TA 4:00.
• 8TH GRADE DANCE: The 8th grade will sponsor the second dance of the year. This dance will be for middle school students (7 + 8) only. Like all dances, it will run from 7:30-9:30. Pick up by 10:00, please!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11:
• Middle School Girls and Boys Soccer: TA @ Rivendell 12:30. Parent cars – please have the students at Rivendell by 12:00. These are re-scheduled games postponed earlier in the season.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 13:
MENU: Chicken nuggets, whole wheat rotini, green beans
• College representative:Lyndon State College (VT) 8:30
• NECAP TESTING FOR GRADES 7 AND 8 CONTINUES: Middle school students continue testing during B block with the second of three Math tests.
• Junior Varsity Boys Soccer: TA @ Lisbon, NH 4:00. Bus at 2:00.
• Middle School Girls and Boys Soccer: Hartland @ TA 4:30.
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MENU AT A GLANCE for easy reference:
Monday, October 6:Make your own tortilla with beef, chicken or refried beans
Tuesday, October 7:Chicken curry or Asian style with rice
Wednesday, October 8: Shepherd’s pie
Thursday, October 9:Chili and cornbread
Friday, October 10:Stuffed crust pizza three ways
Monday, October 13:Chicken nuggets, whole wheat rotini, green beans
Our salad bar currently features fresh produce from Cedar Circle Farm. As the outdoor growing season winds down, we’re grateful for the support local farmers have shown for our Farm to School Project.
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UPCOMING SCHOOL EVENTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14: PARENT ADVISORY & ADVOCACY COUNCIL (PAAC)
The Parent Advisory & Advocacy Council will meet at 7:00 p.m. in the library. The first half hour of this meeting is open to any parents who wish to raise questions or bring issues for discussion. PAAC serves as a group for "hearing, steering, and clearing" topics of concern to families.
The co-leaders this year are Barbara Mason () and Mary Bryant ().
At this first meeting, PAAC will get organized for the year and discuss ideas for programs. They will also be reviewing results from last spring’s Parent Survey and making plans to share them with parents and the public.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15: PSAT TESTING
Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Tests (PSATs) will be given starting at 7:35 a.m. This test is practice for the SAT, which is required for admission by virtually all four-year colleges and by many two-year schools. Most college-bound juniors should register to take the PSAT. This is also the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship program.
Sophomores may also register to take the test. Students in grade 10 who have begun their study of geometry will find the test experience most useful.
To register, students should bring a check for $13.00, payable to Thetford Academy, to the Guidance Office.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16: WOMEN CAN DO!
This 10th annual conference for high school girls will be held at Vermont Technical College. The cost is only $15.00.
The conference is a full day of hands-on workshops in trades, technology, and other non-traditional careers to women. A list of programs being offered is available in the Guidance Office.
Interested students should see their guidance counselor. TA will provide transportation and scholarship money is available.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22: FIRST QUARTER ENDS
We end the first grading period of the year. Report cards will be sent home with students on Friday, October 31.
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23-24: NO SCHOOL — TEACHER CONVENTION DAYS
Thetford Academy will not hold school on Thursday and Friday, October 23 and 24, as these are the statewide dates for Teachers' Conventions. The school office will be closed on these days.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25: VT CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Academy once again is privileged to host these championship races. If you haven’t been contacted and would like to volunteer to assist with this event, please contact David McGinn at x-214. Thank you.
SUNDAY-WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26 – 29: NEASC VISIT
Thetford Academy is due for ten-year renewal of its accreditation with the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC), the nation’s oldest educational accreditation organization. We have submitted a comprehensive self-study report on the school to the NEASC Commission on Independent Schools. From October 26-29, a nine-member Visiting Committee will come to the Academy to see the school in action and gather information for their own report to the Commission. We appreciate the efforts of everyone who helped prepare our report over the past year. We look forward to the Visiting Committee’s review and their recommendations.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29: FALL SPORTS AWARDS NIGHT
At 7:00 p.m. in Anderson Hall Gym, please join us as we honor fall season athletes, with thanks to their coaches and families for all their support.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31: REPORT CARDS SENT HOME
Report cards for the first marking period will be given to students at the end of the day by advisors. Please review your student’s performance. Teachers, advisors, and school counselors are available to help answer any questions you may have.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1: PASTA DINNER
The 7th grade provides a pasta dinner in Anderson Hall from 5:00-7:00 pm. You can choose your own sauce! Proceeds support the class trip to Washington, DC in the spring.
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ACADEMY NEWS & NOTES:
Please send inquiries or items for the “Academy News & Notes” section to Head of School Martha Rich . If you’d like your news included in that week’s Monday edition, please submit no later than the preceding Friday at 2:00 p.m.
THANK YOU, WOODS TRAIL VOLUNTEERS!
This past Saturday the strength of our community was on display as more than 100 volunteers delivered an outstanding and memorable cross country invitational at the Academy. Close to 2200 runners, their coaches, and supporters were treated to beautiful weather and Thetford Academy hospitality—which, as many of our guests commented, is second to none. Thanks to everyone for their contributions to the 18th Annual Woods Trail Run. We look forward to seeing you again when we host our Vermont peers for the state championships on Saturday, October 25.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE ALERT: WATCH FOR THIS NEW DRUG
The information below came from a TA parent who got it from a friend who’s a police officer in Hanover. Our Student Assistance Program counselor, Sara Gendal-Wilmot, confirms that this is a genuine concern, although there is no evidence of its use in our school or the Upper Valley so far. She notes that the drug is especially dangerous because of its resemblance to candy and because it can be fatal.
There is a new drug known as 'strawberry quick' or “strawberry meth.”This is a type of crystal methamphetamine that’s made to look like strawberry pop rocks
(the candy that sizzles and 'pops' in your mouth). It also smells like strawberry and it is being handed out to kids in school yards. They are calling it strawberry meth or strawberry quick.
It also comes in chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and orange.
In other parts of the country,kids are ingesting this thinking that it is candy
and being rushed off to the hospital in dire condition. There is a story on this and
the heroin-based drug called “cheese,” also targeted at younger kids, at this website:
MAGAZINE DRIVE
The Student Council’s annual fundraiser has begun. Please consider renewing subscriptions or ordering new magazines. This program offers over 700 magazines, plus music, books and other items. You save up to 90% off newsstand prices and the school earns a portion of every order. It’s easy to order online. Visit the website at QSP.comand use our school code: 425015375 (or simply type in Thetford Academy, Vermont, and the code will appear). Thanks so much for your support!
THETFORD ACADEMY SNOWBOARD CLUB (from Linda Reeves Potter—repeated from last week)
Snowboard enthusiasts,keep in mind if you are interested in keeping the TA Snowboard Club alive please contact Linda Reeves-Potter at 802-333-4128 or . The club is open for all students, yet the VPA competition level only applies for 9-12 grades. Get to know how the students and their parents can get involved. All that is needed is a couple willing parents and students that are willing to GET FOCUSED on the outdoor sport. The club benefits involve getting to visit most of Vermont's best mountains and getting on the mountain at a reasonable cost to students and parents! Feel free to contact me for more information.
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TEACHING AND LEARNING AT TA
In this section of the PFC Calendar, we offer highlights of the school at work: what’s going on in classrooms, profiles of teachers, descriptions of student projects, and other views of the Academy community engaged in its main business—helping minds to grow.
• Grade 8 Global Studies students produced Crazy Maps, a warm-up exercise to accompany their formal map study of Asian countries. Each student represented a country in a creative medium; some results were edible—cakes and cookies—while others used fabric, wood, nails, bottle caps, and even more unlikely objects such as a high-top sneaker.
•In Dawn Deibler’s Statistics course, students are analyzing results from a recent survey they designed to gather data on students’ perceptions and experience at the Academy. The class will present its findings to the accreditation committee scheduled to visit TA at the end of this month.
• After baking large quantities of cookies for Parents’ Night, students in Foods Around the World began a new project on Friday, researching recipes and ethnic culinary traditions to create personal “family heritage” cookbooks.
•In Advanced Art, students have begun this year’s Memory Project. Working from photographs, they will paint high-quality portraits to be given to orphaned children in Ecuador and no family mementos and who few personal possessions of any kind. Participation in this creative service-learning program was initiated last year by Mayellen Matson ’08, who learned about the project while studying art in California.
• All student artists are encouraged to apply for the Young Artist Grant, a generous fund to support innovative independent art projects established by David Young ’01. His current employer, Google, has recently provided matching funds for the TA program.
PROFILE: TOM O’QUINN
Tom O’Quinn began working with young people early. While still a student at Hanover High School, he helped coach a junior high basketball team and had “a lot of fun.” When he went off to college at Northeastern University in Boston to study accounting and business management, he found, like many of his classmates, that he did not like his major. Since he had always enjoyed sports and PE classes, he changed to physical education and later got certified in health education as well. Over the years he’s taught all those subjects and worked as a guidance counselor, too (he earned a Master's in Guidance and Counseling from Plymouth State College in 1992), but his main field has been the one he teaches now at TA: Driver Education.
He got his start as a driving instructor while taking some time off from college and working as an assistant high school coach. One of his former teachers asked him to join his Driving School. Tom then worked for him while finishing his undergraduate studies. Now, he says, he’s been teaching Driver Education “off and on” for the last 38 years. “It works for me,” he says. “I have always enjoyed teaching…also having a work schedule that allowed me to help raise four children.” As a parent himself, he is familiar with the “shenanigans and nuances” of teenagers, but he knows kids get serious behind the wheel. “I very rarely have a student who is difficult when there is the one-on-one situation in the car,” Tom says. “In driving lessons, there is a very pure teaching and learning situation: one teacher and two students in the car.I have a motivated beginning driver. I can use several teaching styles to get my point across. It is conducive to learning.”
Tom’s recent reading includes novels by Richard Russo: Nobody's Fool and the Pulitzer Prize winner Empire Falls. He’s now reading a “funny but introspective” book called Breakfast with Buddha. He also keeps up with professional study. Last spring he completed new state requirements for licensing as a New Hampshire Driver Education instructor, in order to continue serving TA students from that state.
“I keep going,” Tom says, “by realizing there is always something to learn. Working with young adults keeps me young.”
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COMMUNITY NEWS AND NOTES:
To have your community event listed here, send e-mail to Community Relations Coordinator Wendy Cole o later than the preceding Friday at 2:00 p.m. Please submit by this time, or we will be unable to include your news for the following week.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12: APPLE FEST (from Therese Linehan)
AppleFest at the Morrill Homesteadin Strafford, 11-4:00.