Ms. Hagge’s AP Language and Composition class have been learning about rhetorical situation and rhetorical devices as they explore the essential question of the first thematic unit: “How do we reflect on humanity’s place in the natural world?”

After watching the film An Inconvenient Truth, discussing Al Gore’s rhetorical choices, doing presentations on rhetoric in a variety of texts concerned with the topic of climate change, we are now turning our attention to Emerson’s classic transcendentalist essay “Nature.”

We took the opportunity of fair weather, on a warm September afternoon to read and study “Nature” outside.

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In Integrated Environmental Science, students recently completed a multi-day experience immersed in our outdoor forested classroom. Students worked collaboratively to identify the various species of trees present in the Northern Hardwood Forest.

Students will also have the opportunity to teach their peers how to identify a single tree species using important identification characteristics, as well as sharing a song, poem or watercolor painting.

In the future, students will combine their observations with the long-term monitoring data from our AP Environmental Science class to calculate the Simpson’s Index as one way to measure biodiversity. The study of our forest includes opportunities to develop an increased appreciation for the natural landscape and to discuss the importance of being a forest steward. Our work also serves as a foundation to understanding the beautiful complexity of old growth forests.

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The 9th grade Integrated Environmental Science students also engaged in a unique service learning opportunity as part of the course’s alignment to WUHSMS’s CRAFT program, which connects students, teachers, and community patterns through food and forest systems to empower people to be engaged in place-based solutions. Students helped to remove a fence that was damaged by flooding this past summer and helped to clear the garden in preparation for the installation of lasagna garden beds.

The school garden was under 6 feet of water back in July. Our Agriculture classes have been working hard to clean up and rebuild.

We will be able to use some of the (very resilient) crops that survived the flooding; such as garlic, corn, carrots, amaranth, tomatoes, and ground cherries; as seed for next year.

Luckily, we grew produce in a new permaculture garden behind the bus barn that Josie Cross designed for her Stewardship Action Project in the spring. We have been making zucchini bread, salsa, kale chips, and zucchini tots with the produce.

Julia and Isabelle started delivering The Valley News to the library and classrooms as part of the Newspapers in Education program and Kiki received a book through interlibrary loan that is a memoir written by her great-grandfather titled Black Cuban, Black American.

The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club is reading Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. Stop by the library or the Club Fair next week for more information. And, the Faculty/Staff Book Club is reading The Art Thief by Michael Finkel. Both book clubs are meeting in October.

Freshman students participated in the annual tradition of running for student government positions at WUHS this past week. The students submitted an application to communicate their enthusiasm for a robust school community, competing for class officer positions (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer), as well as for one of the five seats available on the WUHS Student Council.

There were some tight races and energetic voting took place on Wednesday. The following results were announced at the end of the week. Thank you to all who participated and congratulations to those who won!

Class of 2027 Officers

President: Nick Cellini
Vice President: Pippa Shaw
Secretary: Jake Blackburn Treasurer: Lucia Beckwith
Student Council Representatives: Piper Pauly, Matilda Richardson, Addy Tucker, Charleigh Parker and Anna Young.

In this week's From the Library newsletter, you'll see we had a busy week with the Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club meeting to discuss The Words in My Hands by Asphyxia and the Faculty/Staff Book Club meeting to discuss Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.

Please remember to return your overdue books, check out new ones and let Ms. Piccoli know if you need help with anything.

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WUHSMS is excited to welcome twenty Spanish students and their sponsors, Jaime Martínez and Juan Fernández to our school this week. The students arrived Friday, September 8th and were picked up by their host families and students. Their school, Colegio Salesianos Paseo Extremadura, will be hosting WUHS students in April as part of the Woodstock-Madrid Exchange.

Students met with WUHSMS Co-Organizers Luis Villanueva and Anna Megyesi for an orientation and campus tour on Monday before joining their host students in class. Their time here allows them to immerse themselves in American culture and language and develop connections with our school community.

In addition to attending classes with their host students, Mr. Villanueva organized a number of excursions for them to take in some of the highlights of Vermont. Students visited UVM, Ben and Jerry’s, Burlington, and had a tour of Billings Farm. They went kayaking to experience firsthand the rich tradition of recreational tourism in the area. Teacher Steve Smith presented a history of Woodstock and Vermont during ARE time which was very well received.

Last Friday, the ninth grade students took an afternoon away from academics to build community.

We started with an assembly in which we introduced the leadership team, and the health and support staff. Students got to see images of their teachers when they were ninth graders and learned interesting facts about their teachers through fun trivia.

They then transitioned outside where they were greeted with different team building stations including balloon relays, sponge races, paper airplane contests, and a song-identifying game. We finished off with ice cream and popsicles, recognitions of exceptional team spirit and collaboration, and a group photo. It was a wonderful afternoon for everyone.

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This past week in AP Physics I, students explored various ways to abstractly represent the motion of objects. After crafting claims and making predictions pertaining to the motion of a marble rolling down a ramp, students worked in small groups to collect data, which they used to calculate the acceleration and final velocity of an object. Stop by room 11 to check out their work!