The Modern and Classical Language Department is thrilled to announce that the following students were recently recognized for creative excellence in state-wide competitions!:

In the Vermont Foreign Language Association's Annual Poster Contest,. Clara Burkholder earned 3rd place in the middle school division. Sophia Randolph earned 3rd place in the high school division. Danny Smith earned 1st place in the digital category (open to all grades).

In the Annual Writing Contest sponsored by the Classical Association of New England, Annie Hauze earned 1st place in Vermont for her poem titled "Madwoman".

Congrats to all!

On March 14th, a group of students gathered at Champlain College to conduct a workshop as part of the annual conference hosted by the Vermont Association for Middle-Level Education (VAMLE) on Anti-Bullying. The workshop was attended by participants from various middle-level schools across Vermont, including teachers, administrators, and students.

During the workshop, the students shared their expertise and insights on creating action plans and resources to encourage open and critical conversations within school communities. They emphasized the importance of driving social action and promoting positive change through meaningful dialogue and concrete steps toward progress. The students also presented a resource guide titled 'Vermont Students Critical Conversations Resource,' which they had created to provide valuable information and guidance for anyone seeking to initiate and facilitate critical conversations in their school community.

The workshop served as a valuable opportunity for the students to connect with others who share their passion for social justice and to inspire them to take action in their own schools and communities.

Thanks to our students Adelle Danilchek, Aidan Keough-Vella, Ava Rich, Ella Stainton, Farren Stainton, Morgan Putnem, and Owen Courcey.

CRAFT has hosted two exciting events in the past week! The second in our trilogy of Career Panels focused on the theme of Conservation Careers. Students learned from the following panelists:

• Holly Knox, US Forest Service

• Hannah Dallas, Windsor County Forester

• Rudi Ruddell, White River Partnership

• Lorne Currier, Green Mountain Club
  

They were intrigued to learn about the winding and interconnected career paths of these folks, how mountain bike trails are cited, and designed, and how climate change is influencing each of their work in a variety of ways. We can sense some great collaborations and even internship possibilities cooking up with these fantastic community partners!

We also hosted our second student retreat. Each student currently working toward the CRAFT credential gathered at the Vermont Land Trust's King Farm this week to build community, reflect on stewardship and sustainability themes emerging in their learning, and to elicit some good old fashioned JOY.

On Friday, February 10, our class visited the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College to see the exposition "¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now". Dartmouth's Vivian M. Ladd Tomasi and Beatriz Yanes Martinez led the students in the collection's English and Spanish tours, part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's traveling exhibit. The exhibit featured a broad, diverse, and inclusive view of American art.

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On February 14th, a record number of high school students -- 28!-- gathered in YOH Auditorium to participate in this year’s Poetry Out Loud Recitation Contest. Even the student body that gathered to support them appeared record in number, so one might presume it was a good day to “heart” a poem -- either as a deliverer or a receiver.

Students self-selected their poems from The Poetry Out Loud anthology and, with much classroom (and beyond!) practice, offered their interpretations of poems ranging in content from madness to love (unsung and found), to Nature (her seasonal and animal impact and messages for humanity), perseverance, opportunity, and even a few poems or “Pomes” featuring wicked “W” wordplay and pun. The poetry recitations were assessed in several categories -- the speaker’s physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding, overall performance and accuracy.

Aside from the stellar Excel program Mr. Andy Smith put together to sum the judges’ scores for each student, Woodstock’s Poetry Out Loud Contest was a tech-free, “Old-school,'' pure mind-body-soul event where students from the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades truly distinguished themselves in offering a poem that mattered to them this past Valentine’s Day.

By 3:00 pm, the scoring team of Mrs. Vonada and Mr. Andy Smith reported the results from Judges Brennan, Richardson, Allen, Robbins, Smail and Hayslett to reveal freshman Agnes Kardashian’s third place finish with 146 points for “Invictus” by William Earnest Henley; junior William Obbard’s second place finish with 167 points for “Tomorrow” by Dennis O’Driscoll; and senior Anne Hauze’s first place with 185 points for “The Properly Scholarly Attitude” by Adelaide Crapsey.

As Woodstock’s 2023 Poetry Out Loud School Champion, Anne Hauze will represent Woodstock at The Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition in Barre, Vermont on March 9th, where she will compete with two poems and vie for a spot in the state finals to be held on March 16th at The Flynn Center in Burlington -- stay tuned! For students wishing to see the complete scoring results for all contestants, please stop by the Library Circulation Desk. Thank you to all the students who gave poetry recitation or reading a try this winter -- this was just about everyone!

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Woodstock students in grades 7-12 attended Latin Day at UVM and met hundreds of other students from across the state who also study Latin and the ancient world.

Students participated in various fun and educational breakout sessions, including a tour of Latin inscriptions at UVM, trivia and Latin grammar competitions, a visit to UVM’s special collections where they could see 500-year-old books, and a session on how Roman military formations worked.

Students in Latin II and IV wrote and performed a skit about Emperor Claudius battling an orca in the port of Ostia, and they got a ton of laughs and won first place! Woodstock students also received 1 silver and 2 gold medals for their participation in outdoor Olympica competitions.

Overall Woodstock earned 3rd place in the small school division! We're pretty excited about that since it was our first time (at least in recent memory) going to Latin Day, and we look forward to attending again next year! Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus!

The ninth grade students at Woodstock Union High School began their school year with an all-too-relevant topic: dystopian fiction. In this ebook compilation, you will find short stories, chapter excerpts, and works of art that relate to the utopian and dystopian literary genres, all penned by Woodstock Union High School English I students. In their stories, you’ll notice a glimmer of hope--that one individual can disrupt even the most oppressive societies, and can make change through rebellious acts, like writing in a journal, sacrificing oneself for others, or daring to love during a time of great peril. You will find evidence that even in the darkest of times, both real and imagined, there is always hope for better times ahead. Enjoy!

Shirley Jefferson gave an engaging and inspirational talk about her life as a civil rights activist and law professor to students in Mr. Clifford’s, Ms. Hagge’s and Ms. Perkins’s Block 5 English classes in the library on Thursday, February 16.

Danny Smith and Annie Hauze organized the event as part of the Social Action Club’s programming for Black History Month. In 2020, Danny Smith saw Professor Jefferson speak at a Black Lives Matter rally in South Royalton and recently invited her to speak at WUHSMS for this event.

She shared her story and her history as a little girl growing up in Selma, Alabama marching to Montgomery with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis, to living in Baltimore, Washington, DC and South Royalton, Vermont where she went to law school and is currently a law professor and the Vice President of Community Engagement and Government Relations at the Vermont Law School.

Throughout her talk, she gave encouragement and advice including, “Think of positive things in your life when you get down” and “Start thinking about what you want in your life.”

Her story is an inspirational one. She he integrated her high school in the early 1970’s—some twenty years after the US Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board in 1954 was supposed to desegregate public schools. After explaining how she was passionate about her cases, she proclaimed, “Use your brain!”

When Isabel Konijnenberg asked Professor Jefferson if law school helped her tackle the injustices she had faced, Professor Jefferson explained that first she had to “let a lot of bitterness go” if she was “going to embrace the law.” She explained that before she could fight injustice for others she had to fight injustice within herself.

Ella Stainton asked about the effect she wanted to have on her students and Professor Jefferson replied, “I want them to know they can do it and I will fight for them.”

Congratulations to Junior Leah Kuhnert, a finalist in the 13th Annual Bernie Sanders State of the Union Essay Contest. The contest drew essays from 382 students from 31 Vermont high schools. Leah wrote about climate change and industrial agriculture, and she shared her ideas with Senator Sanders and fellow finalists during a round table discussion in Montpelier last Saturday. After the event, Leah and her parents were interviewed by ABC 22 news. Leah’s essay will be sent to the Congressional Record.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to have a direct connection with someone who could make large-scale changes for high school students. And it’s something that I think should be done more often.”

— Leah Kuhnert, in an interview with MyChamplainValley.com