Dear Parents,
As we continue to strengthen our communication about the many facets of our curriculum and program, teachers are creating dynamic blogs to help students explore some of what it means to engage in learning at NYA. Below are brief descriptions and links to faculty pages where this work is documented. Please take a few moments to read about some of the excitement taking place at NYA every day.
To start, there are some fun and unusual images from the 6th grade art studio where our students have explored light photos created over a 15-second exposure: Tim McMahon’s Post
Abbie Sewall also captured some wonderful interactions with her colleagues in the arts on her page, documenting how the arts are taught at NYA in a short video found here: Abbie Sewall’s Post
Freshman English students in Heidi Grant’s classroom have been playing with poetry and poetic language to gain insight into their summer reading novels, “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” as well as their first, whole-class reading assignment, “Haroun and the Sea of Stories.” Poetry has been used to help understand the concept of narrative voice as well as major themes: Heidi Grant’s Post
Ross Markonish’s 12th grade students are involved in some very engaging discussions/debates about their summer reading book, “The Road and Hiroshima”: Ross Markonish’s Post
In AP English, two student blogs are running right now. One is a “What are we discussing now?” update, written by students. The second one presents a specific issue that students need to respond to in order to build an understanding of these complex issues: Ross Markonish’s Post
In 7th grade science, students have reflected on their experience fishing and identifying the fish they caught along the Royal River: Danielle Barschdorf’s Post
Meanwhile, in Nate Smith’s science class, students are considering the importance of memorization in the study of science. There is a great debate among these students on this topic: Nate Smith’s Post
In math, Nate Smith wanted to know more about his students’ strengths and weaknesses as well as their passions and nemeses. This blog illustrates how he learned this information: Nate Smith’s Post
Patia Maule asked her AP Spanish students to find an article from an online newspaper or radio station about immigration and then summarize it. In the second half of this assignment, students had to make comments on the points raised in the articles posted by their classmates: Patia Maule’s Post
In Spanish 3, Patia Maule’s students wrote paragraphs responding to questions in which they had to intertwine various verb tenses: Patia Maule’s Post
Heidi O’Connor’s students have begun to blog in an assignment that is designed to stimulate ideas for studying culture, language and travel: Heidi O’Connor’s Red-Bike Post and Heidi O’Connor’s White-Dog-from Magog Post
NYA’s youngest students did a great job coming together to clean a beach last week. Information on their project is here: Shannon Gallagher’s Post
And not to be missed, check out the very entertaining blogs written by Mike Gengras’ AP Literature and Composition in response to college essay writing process: Mike Gengras’ Post
I hope you enjoy reading about what is happening in NYA’s classrooms as much as I do. And of course, your comments and your own blog posts are always welcome!
Yours truly,
Brad Choyt
Head of School
