At ConVal High School, a number of classes have been moved outside, including Mrs. Mitschmyer's Ceramics class. This means that all supplies and tools, including potter's wheels, have to be brought out on a hand-pulled utility wagon every morning and brought back in when school is over.
Everyone has taken these new circumstances in stride. "Students have been practicing a variety of hand-building skills in Ceramics under the tents this year," explained Mitschmyer. "Everything from pinch to coil, and now working with slabs."
"Over the last two weeks, students have been building vessels for containment. At school, this means they have been building boxes and at home, they are working on hollow forms. Moving forward we are exploring bowl forms and tile making."
"I'm hopeful that we will be in the studio in the near future and students will begin practicing the potter's wheel! I just fired the first kiln of the year and hope to show students how to apply glaze for the final firing process soon," Mitschmyer concluded.
The woodworking classes at ConVal's Region 14 Applied Technology Center teach students marketable skills based on experiential and project-based learning.
On a typical day and depending on the class level, one can observe students working on Shaker-style nightstands, building wooden iPhone speakers, assembling wooden pens that have been made by hand on a lathe, designing cribbage boards, or creating intricate family crests.
Under the expert guidance of Mr. Ewing and Mr. Morris, students learn the full range of skill sets. They start from the basics of proper measuring, cutting wood with hand saws, and gluing pieces together with clamps. More advanced skills include squaring rough-cut boards with the automated jointer and planing tools, all the way to programming and operating the computer numerical control (CNC) router.
Safety is always the primary concern. The ATC teachers ensure not only that equipment guards are installed and work properly, but also that students follow all individual safety precautions. This includes students wearing CSA-certified safety glasses and removing all entanglement hazards, such as loose clothing and jewelry.
Once these preconditions are set, the remaining work is all based on student creativity and workmanship.
Over the last couple of weeks, ConVal High School principal Heather McKillop has visited classrooms and instructional tents to hold listening sessions with students.
The motivation for the listening tour stemmed from McKillop's interest in connecting with students. "Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual occasions, such as opening day gatherings, spirit rallies, and sport events, cannot be held this year," she explained. "The split into two alternating student cohorts and the physical distancing guidelines result in vastly fewer opportunities to make personal connections with students. It is therefore all the more important to be visible outside the office and to connect with them where they experience school right now."
In the student groups, McKillop shared her background as a teacher and administrator and invited students to share their backgrounds and experiences at ConVal as well. "I wanted to learn how they are doing with in-person and remote learning experiences," McKillop said. "How are they handling the two modalities? What can we do to make their experience better?"
Students, for the most part, seemed to really enjoy the personal connections they are making with teachers and classmates whenever their cohort was engaged in in-person learning, McKillop noted. "I am amazed at how resilient the students are and how they are handling themselves under the circumstances."
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 marked Unity Day, a day set aside to stand together united for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion and to oppose bullying as well as all other forms of exclusion.
Students, teachers, and staff at ConVal High School wore orange to show their support of this school community endeavor which concluded with a virtual community screening in the evening of the film Upstanders, a documentary about resilience and the power of connection to end bullying.
In accordance with the recommendations of the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) and the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA), the ConVal Athletic Department has issued guidance on winter school sports programs for students in grades 9-12.
Please see this link for more detailed information.
Students in Mary Goldthwaite-Gagne's art class are learning how to see works of art in the way that other artists have interpreted art before them.
"2D Studio Art students are currently exploring abstraction and the work of artist Corita Kent," Ms. G explains. "Corita Kent was an artist and educator, and the motto of the art department at Immaculate Heart College where she taught was, 'We have no art, we do everything as well as we can.'"
Kent often utilized a small viewfinder tool and encouraged students to look at the world around them in small abstracted parts in order to take in the beauty all around us.
"She championed art as essential and for all of us," Goldthwaite says.
Quoting from Corita Kent's book Learning by Heart: Teaching to Free the Creative Spirit, Goldthwaite notes: "To work, play, see, touch, laugh, cry, build, and use it all - even the painful parts, and survive with style: that's what Corita taught. She taught that art is not something apart from life and living."
The students in Mrs. Holcomb's YA Fiction class are currently reading Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.
The protagonist, Darius, is struggling with his identity as an Iranian-American and does not quite know where he fits in with his family or the kids at school. He is also dealing with depression and anxiety, and that adds to his struggles with fitting in. When Darius goes to Iran to visit family he has never met, he learns a lot about himself, his heritage, and friendship. Darius is rarely alone, but he's lonely.
As Mrs. Holcomb explained: "We read an article together on how loneliness is actually an epidemic here in the US, and so we engaged in service projects to help combat loneliness. Students drew chalk art with uplifting messages, made cards for hospitalized kids, wrote letters to send to the local senior centers, or wrote letters to loved ones far away. It's all part of our effort to use literature to help us understand the complexities of our world and our place in it."
School pictures will be taken at ConVal High School by Lifetouch Photos on October 29 (Gold Cohort students) and November 5 (Blue Cohort students).
Please mark your student's day on your calendar. Lifetouch will be sending out emails with information on ordering picture packets.
October 29
8:00 am – 12:00 noon - All Gold Cohort students 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm - Remote Students designated in the Gold Cohort; this includes students who live in Peterborough, Sharon, Dublin, and Temple.
November 5
8:00 am – 12:00 noon - All Blue Cohort Students 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm - Remote Students designated in the Blue Cohort; this includes students who live in Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, and tuition students.
Remote students must provide their own transportation and come during their scheduled time. Students will only be allowed to enter the designated outdoor photo area. After their photo has been taken, students must leave the premises.
The ConVal cafeteria staff deliver lunch to blue cohort students during Block 3.
Food selections are made by students daily during Block 1, based on a Google form that lists the various options, including a hot meal choice. On the form, students also indicate where their Block 3 class is located.
At the designated time, lunch is delivered to students at their preferred location, whether it is in the classrooms close to the cafeteria or, in this case, the classroom furthest away — the tents on the athletic fields.
This lunch delivery arrangement avoids large groups of students coming together in the cafeteria and allows for the physical distancing guidelines of the ConVal COVID protocols to be maintained.
Teachers, who share their lunch period with students, have remarked that this is also a time where important informal conversations can take place.
A big thank you to all the cafeteria personnel who makes this special delivery service possible at ConVal High School!
At ConVal High School, a number of classes have been moved outside, including Mrs. Mitschmyer’s Ceramics class. This means that all supplies and tools, including potter’s wheels, have to be brought out on a hand-pulled utility wagon every morning and brought back in when school is over.
Everyone has taken these new circumstances in stride.
The woodworking classes at ConVal’s Region 14 Applied Technology Center teach students marketable skills based on experiential and project-based learning.
On a typical day and depending on the class level, one can observe students working on Shaker-style nightstands, building wooden iPhone speakers, assembling wooden pens that have been made by hand on a lathe,
Over the last couple of weeks, ConVal High School principal Heather McKillop has visited classrooms and instructional tents to hold listening sessions with students.
The motivation for the listening tour stemmed from McKillop’s interest in connecting with students. “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual occasions, such as opening day gatherings, spirit rallies,
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 marked Unity Day, a day set aside to stand together united for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion and to oppose bullying as well as all other forms of exclusion.
Students, teachers, and staff at ConVal High School wore orange to show their support of this school community endeavor which concluded with a virtual community screening in the evening of the film Upstanders,
In accordance with the recommendations of the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) and the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA), the ConVal Athletic Department has issued guidance on winter school sports programs for students in grades 9-12.
Please see this link for more detailed information.
Students in Mary Goldthwaite-Gagne’s art class are learning how to see works of art in the way that other artists have interpreted art before them.
“2D Studio Art students are currently exploring abstraction and the work of artist Corita Kent,” Ms. G explains. “Corita Kent was an artist and educator, and the motto of the art department at Immaculate Heart College where she taught was,
The students in Mrs. Holcomb’s YA Fiction class are currently reading Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.
The protagonist, Darius, is struggling with his identity as an Iranian-American and does not quite know where he fits in with his family or the kids at school. He is also dealing with depression and anxiety,
The ConVal cafeteria staff deliver lunch to blue cohort students during Block 3.
Food selections are made by students daily during Block 1, based on a Google form that lists the various options, including a hot meal choice. On the form, students also indicate where their Block 3 class is located.
