Students have engaged in many exciting projects to end the year. In math, they spent time in the new Design Lab creating portable lap desks to be used in future classes. They also made a podium for the desk of the A-School secretary so that she can stand while working. In tenth grade history, students did in-depth projects on the Cold War, such as a documentary on the Cuban Missile Crisis and how it relates to the world today.

Students also planned a Day of Service so that they could work together to give back to the community. While weather interfered with some of the plans, one group performed music for senior citizens at an assisted living facility, and an intrepid group of eight students pulled out invasive vines in Harcourt Park, despite the cold and rain.

The seniors finished up their high school experience by meeting as a grade for three days, as each student did a presentation summarizing his or her Senior Project for the class. While some students did internships at businesses such as schools, law firms, restaurants, and more, others did projects, including a documentary on the March of the Living, development of a fashion line, and the design and fabrication of a highchair that could meet the needs of a disabled fifteen-month-old boy. It was wonderful to experience the creativity, energy and thoughtfulness of these students one more time before they head off for new adventures.

On June 7 th the Bruce Museum of Greenwich, CT held their opening for the 8th annual iCreate high school student art exhibit.  This year, forty-five works of art were selected and on display, five of which were created by four talented artists from Scarsdale High School:  Fanner Hong, Julia Levy, Steven Orlofsky and Linna Yao . This annual juried show received over 600 entries from thirty-four high schools in the CT and NY region. I'm also extremely proud to report that out of eight awards announced, two of the recipients were Scarsdale HS students, senior Linna Yao for the 1st prize and freshman Fanner Hong for the Youth@Bruce Award.  The iCreate exhibit will be on display through August 12th. (photos)

This year, sophomore Lucy Du's oil painting titled " My grandfather's Hands" received the Grand Prize award for our congressional district of NY for the 2018 Congressional Art Competition.  Her piece will be hung in our nation's Capitol for one year.  Lucy and her family will be attending the annual awards ceremony in Washington D.C. at the end of the month. (photos)

 

The Sculpture class went on a guided interactive tour of the NEON exhibition at the Neuberger museum. They also went to Pepsio where they drew and wrote about the sculptures. Pepsico is an outside sculpture garden featuring large scale works by a several important artists. (photos)

The months of May and June bring many milestones to SHS, and the Counseling Department is honored to be part of what are always bittersweet moments in our students' lives. We recently met with our graduating seniors as part of Senior Transition Day, an experience that brought back Scarsdale alumni who shared their college experiences. A final meeting with each respective Dean followed, and our students then enjoyed a luncheon sponsored by the PTA.

Our work with underclassmen continued as well. In late May, we welcomed the incoming ninth graders by joining them in the middle school for an orientation, and met with their parents during an evening program designed to familiarize them with the high school.  Both Senior Transition Day and the eighth grade orientation remind us of the arc of a student's high school experience, and all the special events in between. One such example is the annual Shakespeare Festival run by the English Department. The Deans take part in this day by joining our students in the auditorium for the play, and collaborating with our English and Social Studies colleagues in group activities following the performance.    And of course, we worked with all students in supporting a successful conclusion to the year and to finalize their schedules for the fall.

As another school year comes to end, we hope that students can look back and relish in what they've accomplished, and we wish all a restful and productive summer!

In English classes, the fourth quarter is a time of synthesis, as students reflect on what they have learned about the human experience from the literature they read during the year. In Pamela Kroll's 9 th -grade classes, for example, students wrote about how Joseph Campbell's map of the hero's journey applied to various texts they had studied this year. Meanwhile, in Kathleen McGreal's 11 th -grade course, the students applied what they had learned about the complexity of the "American dream" to three classics of contemporary American drama: Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman , August Wilson's Fences , and Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof .

At the end of May, our 9 th -graders enthusiastically brought A Midsummer Night's Dream to life on stage during SHS's annual Shakespeare Festival. The day-long celebration began with a breakfast for freshman sponsored by the 9 th -grade government, followed by an exuberant performance of Shakespeare's play, and concluded with classes meeting in their English/Social Studies/Guidance teams for team-building activities.

In similar fashion, the 12 th -grade AT classes marked the end of the year with a final celebration of their studies in our annual Poetry Festival at the end of April. All students from our Advanced Topics English classes gathered in the library to listen to over thirty student presenters read aloud their favorite poems or share original poetic compositions.

As the culminating activity in Mr. Tulley's Health classes, students presented their individual, long-term, passion driven projects. Their peers evaluated their talks on emotional response, research, message/argument, and presentation skills. The highest ranked talks were presented at the Health Fair last week. Talks were given on topics such as gun control, integrating sport & prison, introverts in school, social media & mental health, sexism in the media, etc., with twenty-two unique projects presented in total.

In the Physical Education Department, we hosted two artists-in-residence in many of our 9th & 10th grade classes for a four-week multicultural dance experience.  Ming Allen joined SHS to teach our students about Chinese cultural dance and Anna de la Paz worked with our students to provide an experience in Spanish dance, specifically Fandango.  This unique opportunity culminated in a dance-share, with these 9th & 10th grade classes performing for their peer PE and World Language classes. Ming and Anna brought an incredible amount of knowledge and experience to our school and we were so lucky to welcome them both here.

We end the year with a new collaboration with the Scarsdale Public Library and innovative ideas for our library space. As the SPL prepares for its much anticipated renovation, they are eager to continue providing as many services as possible to our students. In that vein, they offered extended library study hours during finals week using the SHS library. We worked together to organize hours, staffing and snacks and hope the extra study time was beneficial. During the next school year, we will continue to work together to promote the SPL's programs and resources.

Working with Lisa Yokana's Design Fabrication class and Adrienne Sapione's Architecture I students, we explored ideas related to improving and expanding areas and furniture that promote quiet, independent study on our mezzanine level. The Design & Fabrication students designed seating that incorporates practicality, comfort, privacy, and technology. The architecture students designed a quiet study room that beautifully blends functionality with aesthetics. As we continue to reevaluate and reinvent our space and offerings, we are grateful for student and staff input and ingenuity.

The Performing Arts department thanks the administration, faculty, staff, parents, community, and students for an outstanding 2017-2018. The successes and accolades are many, and greatly appreciated. This tremendous shared support is superbly rewarding.

The Spring Arts Festival was highly successful with four superb evening events, all of which included recognition of our graduating performers. This wonderfully collaborative event included a display of artwork that encircled The Commons. This partnership of the arts is a collective celebration that is indicative of the cohesive culture of Scarsdale High School.

Additional performances, as well as those to come are throughout the community and Village in the spirit of non sibi. These include the Tri-M Honors Society Graduation recital, the in-school Memorial Day Celebration, the Memorial Day Parade, and of course Graduation on Dean Field.

For the tenth consecutive year, the Scarsdale Public Schools have been named Among Americas Best Communities for Music Education. This award has been bestowed each and every year of application. It is a direct result of the passion, commitment and dedication the entire K-12 Performing Arts staff provides to all the children of the district. Additionally, this national recognition can only be presented with the tremendous support by all constituencies in the district and community, overt and subtle. It is with humility that we acknowledge this validation of our collective efforts.

The department wishes everyone a safe and restful summer.

The Biology teachers, in a commitment to Place Based education where students use the campus and surrounding outdoor environment as their classroom, participated in a practice run of a biotic study of the water quality of the SHS brook. This investigation introduces the use of leaf packs to collect and identify the macroinvertebrates (insect larvae) that reside in the campus waterway.  Leaf packs are nylon bags filled with dead leaf litter from trees lining the brook that are placed in the water at various locations and allowed to acclimate for three to four weeks. The macroinvertebrates settle in and feed off the leaves in a protected environment. After this incubation period, the bags are harvested, the leaves washed off, and the macroinvertebrates catalogued. Biology students had the opportunity to participate in this extended study throughout the quarter.

The teachers in the photo are harvesting the bags, washing off the leaves, and identifying the larvae found.  The larvae are categorized by their tolerance of pristine to polluted water. A biotic index is then determined from this data and the quality of the water, using the number and class of larvae found, is established. The video is an example of collected macroinvertebrates.

Tenth grade World History students in Patrick Healy, Andrew Morgan, Christopher Paulison, and David Sherrin's classes ended their academic year with an international peace conference simulation that sought to resolve the crisis in Syria. Students took on various roles such as representatives of countries, rebel groups, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to research and write position papers in preparation for the conference.   The conference helped students understand the intricacies of the conflict in Syria, how the problems have extended well beyond Syria's borders, and how competing objectives have made a potential solution particularly challenging for the international community.

In Christopher Paulison's World History classes, students were challenged to put their historiographical skills to the test by writing their own histories of the Iranian Revolution. Tasked with answering the question "Did the people of Iran gain their right to self-determination in 1979, or lose their freedom?"  (photos)

In Heather Waters' AT US History and American Studies classes engaged in a combined for a trip to New York City to enhance their study of the Vietnam War.  Students explored the USS Intrepid (which did three tours during the Vietnam War) and experienced the limited viewing exhibition on the Vietnam War at the New York Historical Society.

The 12th grade Peace-ing it Together classes visited the Mt. Vernon and New Rochelle soup kitchens as one of the service options for their final year-end assessment. Students were required to determine ways to apply what they leaned in the course through community outreach initiatives. The work in the soup kitchens was one of the options students had to complete for this final assessment.

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard"
- AA Milne, Winnie the Pooh

When asked what we are most proud of as a department, the relationships we develop over the four years with our students always springs to mind.  We meet them as nervous, yet excited freshmen and over the four years, we are fortunate to watch them develop into students who are prepared to move on confidently to the next phase of their journey.  The bonds formed in the LRC are strong which makes saying goodbye just a little bit harder. We are so proud of our seniors and look forward to hearing about their successes. Our annual "Senior Luncheon" was the setting for lots of laughter and celebration. We wish all the graduates the best of luck!!

Back in the LRC, students were busy preparing for finals and Regents and getting ready to close out the year.  Teachers continued to bring high school students to the elementary schools for the Learning Differences programs, always a highlight of the year for all involved.

Happy Summer to all!

STEAM students enjoyed quarter four in the new Design Lab. Students in the Entrepreneurship independent study pitched their final solutions for improving cell phone use in the high school. Later, they gave feedback to a real entrepreneur who is marketing an app to schools, which is similar to what one group proposed.

Senior Zach Friedman used his senior options to design and build solutions for a local 15 month old baby who has multiple disabilities, including a high chair insert and 3D printed spoon holder with an embedded LED. Adaptive design will be the focus for next year's Entrepreneurship classes. You can learn more by watching this video .

Other classes provided solutions for the new space, including a wood storage system and a stand to house safety gear. Students created cardboard prototypes of furniture that promotes quiet study for the redesign of the library, gathering feedback via an online survey. Other second level electives explored digital fabrication by learning to use the laser cutter and 3D printers, while designing solutions for spaces in the school. Physical Computing students provided a few hours of fun in the Learning Commons with a cornhole game that used microcontrollers and bluetooth to dispense cookies to the winners. Robotics students explored the world of automation and sensors. And the introductory level students learned more about electronics, soldering, robotics and programming. It was a strong end of the year in the Design Lab. (more photos)

Latin students participated in the National Latin Exam, a worldwide contest. The exam allows every Latin student the opportunity to experience a sense of personal accomplishment and success in his/her study of the Latin language and culture. This year, our students won a number of awards and medals:

• 8 Summa Cum Laude / Gold Medals
• 6 Maxima Cum Laude / Silver Medals
• 6 Magna Cum Laude
• 2 Cum Laude

Congratulations to all who participated in the National Latin Exam. (photo)

The China exchange program took place from March 31 to April 13 this year. Ten students got an opportunity to travel to Beijing to see the historic forbidden city, to climb the gorgeous great wall, and to taste authentic Chinese cuisine in local restaurants. Students also traveled to Shanghai for a home stay with Chinese families and followed their Chinese counterparts' schedule to experience their school and extracurricular life. (photos)

The World Language Department sends its very best wishes to Laura Bell and Sylvie Corten who are retiring this year after 61 years of collective service.