Scarsdale High School
April 2020
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Dear Students and Parents,
I hope this message finds you healthy and well. I want to take this opportunity to share some information about upcoming events and to discuss further how we have designed distance learning at the high school as we move forward through an extended school closure. I am also pleased to provide a summary of learning activities across the departments in this distance-learning environment as part of this Quarterly Update.
We have designated Friday, May 8th, as a Long-term Planning Day at the High School. Teachers will not be required to hold synchronous class meetings on that day so that they can plan and collaborate on curriculum and assessment for the rest of the year.
We have also canceled traditional final examinations for this spring. To be clear, teachers may still conduct assessment activities in their classes during their synchronous class meetings and asynchronous assignments, but there will not be any exam-only days at the end of June (as we usually have), regardless of whether we return to the building this school year.
In order to ensure the best possible senior experience for the Class of 2020, we have established a Senior Events Committee, composed of administrators, teachers, students, and parents, which will review proposals and plans for Senior Options, Awards Assembly, Senior Prom, Senior Transition Day, and Graduation. Although we canceled the traditional Senior Options program this year, many seniors would like an alternative experience that might be achieved in this environment. I have met with Senior Class leaders, and the Committee will review proposals to see if they are feasible given current restraints. Similarly, we have received many ideas about how we might conduct prom and graduation, and the committee will review these and other ideas and make recommendations on how best to proceed with these events. Of course, all of this will be contingent on what the governmental restrictions are on social gatherings later this spring. We will communicate these decisions as soon as we can make them. I want to take the time needed to make the best decisions possible, knowing that teachers, students, and families need time to plan around these decisions once they are announced.
I would like to take some time to review the framework and expectations for distance learning at the High School. Our first consideration in designing a framework for distance learning was wellness, that of students and of faculty. We opted for smaller segments of synchronous instruction complemented by asynchronous independent or collaborative work that the students do on their own or with classmates. We also allowed for a morning and afternoon session for teachers to select around their own demands at home and student preferences to the extent possible.
After considering wellness concerns, we looked at what makes instruction effective. What a teacher is able to achieve in a classroom setting is dependent in part on the students and the teacher being physically present in one room. There is an enormous amount of nonverbal communication that goes on between students and teachers, and teachers assess students' behavior and demeanor to determine their level of engagement and even understanding. Such exchanges and assessments are nearly impossible in a distance-learning environment because of the two dimensional nature of the contact and the inability to engage all senses in the experience. Similarly, students' formal and informal collaboration (from asking a neighbor to repeat something the teacher said or checking an answer to getting into groups) is limited in distance learning. It is possible, to be sure, but the frequency and magnitude of these collaborations do not come close to accomplishing what gets done in the classroom. In other words, even if we fully replicated the physical class time in synchronous communication, we would not be replicating the productivity of that time. Therefore, we felt a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning activities would be most effective for teaching and learning.
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Given the limitations on assessment, we had a difficult decision to make regarding grades. We concluded that letter grades in the fourth quarter and for course grades will acknowledge work students did earlier in the year (in quarters 1 and 2) as well as any graded work they have done and are doing in quarters 3 and 4. We also want to provide a means of motivating and acknowledging student engagement, participation, and performance during the closure. Finally, letter grades would work in both the distance-learning and in-school environments: if we do return to school this year, we won't want to have to change course on a grading decision we made while school was closed.
The decisions on instruction and assessment then shaped our thinking about curriculum. If less content and fewer skills can be taught and assessed, then the curriculum must be modified to reflect this reality. We are aiming to teach and assess the essential content and skills of each course that are achievable in distance learning, and we may well have to adjust curriculum in the fall to accommodate any changes in curriculum we make now. In fact, teachers’ summer curriculum work will be focused largely on this issue.
The mental and health and well-being of our students and teachers are our priority. We believe this approach demonstrates that, while also allowing us to achieve our educational goals.
We are doing our best to modify our curriculum, instruction, and assessment to give students an engaging and enriching experience that is reasonable, achievable, and healthy.
Have a good weekend, and please stay safe.
Sincerely,
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Although we greatly miss interacting with our students in “live” classes, we are
striving to offer meaningful learning opportunities both in classes and in our extracurricular programs. In Environmental Science, for example, students read Kobert’s
The Sixth Extinction
, and watched eye-opening documentaries about current environmental issues. The class discussed their reactions to these works in Zoom meetings. Now they are calculating their ecological footprints, comparing their results with those of students when they are not in a quarantine. In all of these activities, students are engaging with vibrant, exciting material about real life issues, preparing to become thoughtful members of a democratic society.
In American Studies, students are connecting to traditional content through non-traditional means. Our juniors read Fitzgerald’s
The Great Gatsby
, participating in lively Zoom discussions and practicing close-reading skills. Students also worked in teams to research connections between the Progressive Era and current issues in America, creating podcasts in which they presented their findings.
Teachers and students are also connecting outside the virtual classroom. During Wellness Week, math teacher James McLoughlin showed five hundred people how to make
pan con tomate
. He discovered that the skills of a successful cook and a successful mathematician are quite similar; see this
link
for photos and more details. Students also met through Zoom to share student-made designs for A-School clothing, such as this logo made by Alex Horvath. (insert photo) While our community cannot meet in person, we will continue to find ways to come together for mutual support, learning, and fun in this challenging time.
(
more photos
).
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The art teachers are discovering creative ways to engage their classes remotely. We are all using Google Classroom and zooming. We are sharing ideas about teaching in this environment. Here are just a few innovative projects.
Students are creating using unusual materials. They are printing with found objects, both from indoors and outdoors. We have made “kitchen clay” to create pots, sculpture, and jewelry. Students are experimenting with new ways to use their iPhones for photography and video.
We are also continuing work based on museum visits. At the Whitney the AT students saw the Vida Americana exhibition on murals. They are creating their own murals now, based on important timely topics. Of course, some are using the Corona virus as the subject.
Photo classes are making the best of a difficult situation by shooting portraits that document family life during COVID-19. This is a project that is done every year, but the results seem much more poignant under our current circumstances.
Students are taking virtual tours of world-famous museums. While not the ideal way to see art, virtual visits provide an opportunity to explore collections and travel around the world. Hopefully they will look forward to going to the actual museums in the future.
Many art teachers are also concerned about wellness at this time. One teacher engaged her students in creating nature mandalas, which they all shared and wrote about. We are uploading and sharing everything with our classes so that we can continue our conversations about the importance of art for so many aspects of our lives. The art department continues to thrive and to support students in creative practice.
(more photos)
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For the Counseling Department, our mission to support, counsel, guide, and inform students and families continues in the Distance Learning environment. Deans have worked to maintain direct contact with students and parents across all grade levels through various means, including zoom meetings and phone conferences. These have included counseling students who are experiencing difficulties in this environment, communicating with seniors about their post-secondary options, conferencing with students regarding their schedules for next year, holding college conferences with our juniors, and touching base with those who have general questions regarding their personal or academic progress.
We have provided grade level information through email blasts, held a virtual Q&A for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, during wellness week, and have remained engaged with the larger faculty to support students in their respective classes. Despite the transition to a virtual environment, we have also sought to continue with programs and events typically held at SHS. Next month, the Counseling Department will host two programs for juniors through a webinar - College Panel Night and Essay Workshop for juniors.
We hope that through all these interactions, our students will continue to see us as a source of support and counsel. The Deans hope to see everyone at SHS in the not too distant future, and in the meantime will utilize all available resources in our effort to support students through these unprecedented times.
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The main mission of the English department continues: students are reading texts and then discussing what they have read with their teachers and with other students. Students are writing analytically, personally and creatively and receiving feedback on that writing by their teachers and by their peers. The form of these discussions has moved entirely online, and the content suffered for the first couple of days, but students and teachers adapted, and sometimes classes almost feel “normal” again, in terms of the depth of observations that students are able to make, and in terms of their ability to build off each other’s observations.
Teachers are posting documentary clips about the Civil Rights movement to place
To Kill a Mockingbird
into context. Teachers are comparing rap lyrics to sections of
Macbeth
, asking students to guess which is which, and sometimes they can tell (and sometimes they cannot). Students are responding to questions on google classroom
based on a day’s worth of reading and then commenting upon each other’s questions, mimicking the classroom discussion, asynchronously. Juniors and seniors are meeting in small groups or individually with their English teachers to work on their research paper progress. Students are writing creative pieces inspired by the pandemic. Some of them have turned the coronavirus into a zombie pandemic; others have reflected seriously, in thoughtfully organized essays, about the degree to which this experience has made them consider what they want to do as opposed to what they ought to do.
The English department is always focused on how to train students to glean meaning from complex texts. The world outside of our windows, for these past few weeks, has been the most complex set of texts our students have ever faced. Many of our conversations toggle back and forth between the texts we are discussing and the experiences with which we are coping. If one happens to be teaching Albert Camus’
The Plague
(an actual text under discussion in one of the AT classes, chosen long before coronavirus was in the news), the connections are a little too close for comfort. Even if one is leading a discussion that does not seem directly connected to the ongoing mayhem, one sometimes finds that it creeps in: Holden walking through Manhattan late at night; Boo Radley being scapegoated; Nick Carraway feeling like someone who is both inside and outside the party at the same time. Students are making these links in their writing assignments and in their zooms with us, and they feel, perhaps, a little less alone through these chances to build virtual communities.
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Third quarter brought globalization into the forefront of all our minds and conversations as we moved to distance learning during the pandemic. Despite some disappointing cancellations due to travel and safety concerns, our students returned from two amazing and meaningful exchanges to Heidelberg, Germany and Madrid, Spain. In February, students stayed with host families in Heidelberg, Germany in the first half of an annual, week long exchange. Students reported a better understanding of the history they study in tenth grade World History classes and made great cross-cultural connections and friendships. Nearby, SHS Spanish students spent two weeks in the home and school of the students from Collegio Ramon y Cajal whom they hosted here at Scarsdale earlier in September. The experience was spectacular! Among the many benefits were increased language fluency, cultural understanding,visits to amazing sites and most importantly, lifelong friendships. Thanks to technology, we have been able to keep in touch with our counterparts in Italy, India, Spain, Germany and China and all are happily well. The students and teachers are having interesting discussions about the crisis and how governments, schools and citizens are handling it differently around the world. (
more photos)
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Health & Physical Education
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Distance learning has truly brought a focus to wellness like never before. While students are juggling the demands of school life from their computers, it's easy for them to find themselves sitting for more hours than usual. We sure have! Our physical education classes have provided an opportunity for our students to get up and move their bodies. We have used the TeamBuildr online platform to implement a fitness plan that is based on functional movement and uses body weight as resistance, while also meeting weekly on Zoom. This regular routine of physical activity is so important all year-round, but especially now as it provides a much-needed reminder to make movement a priority. We invite families to use this opportunity to do these workouts together, as it also offers bonding within your home.
In Health classes, students were introduced to their first group project for the class through Zoom. This collaborative project involved groups researching specific categories of drugs and presenting their findings to the class in a creative way. Students are typically given ownership of creating groups in school, but with our new format Mr. Tulley used the breakout room feature to create randomized groups. After he introduced the project to the whole class, he bounced around to each group to answer questions and assign drug categories. The options for the final product were a bit more limited during distance learning, and ultimately groups decided to collaborate on Google Docs and then create a Google Slideshow to post to the classroom. The class then had access to all of the presentations and completed a Google Form after reviewing them.
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For more than two decades, people have asked about the longevity of physical books and libraries. The proposition has been that since nobody is going to want to read print books and “everything” is available 24/7 from anywhere, what’s the point? Thankfully, in the precedented situation we find ourselves in, the ease of access to resources cannot be minimized. Students and teachers are able to research our vast collection of databases and ebooks seamlessly and through Zoom we have been able to teach information gathering skills.
The one persistent problem has been access to what some might have thought would be dinosaurs, BOOKS!! Our nonfiction print collection is deep and wide and has truly been missed over the last several weeks. Despite this, we have been working with students and teachers to identify solutions to minimize this temporary lack of access.
To offset this, we have been working with the Scarsdale Public Library to advertise their complementary resources. For students who do not yet have library cards to access these, there is an online form and card numbers can be emailed very quickly.
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Congratulations to the Scarsdale High School Math Team! Our team won first place in the Westchester Region of the New York Math League and both first place and second place in the Westchester Interscholastic Math League. In the individual standings, Eric Wei was awarded second place in a three-way tie. Seventeen Scarsdale students were invited to participate in NYSML, the New York State Math League contest. Their great mathematical talents and cooperative spirit are so impressive and much appreciated! Thanks to Ms. Estersohn for her leadership of the team.
The Youth Passion Project
(YPP) provides free online courses to younger students given by Scarsdale High School students to both supplement and expand their learning during the extended school closure.
Many of the student instructors are in Science Research and/or the math team.
Students in Ms. Palekar’s Math 454i class wrote about the 2008 Financial Crisis and the current Stimulus Package discussing the similarities and differences. In Ms. Palekar’s AT Calculus class, students looked at wind maps to help them understand the concept of slope fields. In addition, the class discussed the importance of the concept of "rate of change" which has been essential in understanding the spread of the pandemic.
Ms. Ying’s classes are utilizing both new technologies like Zoom, DeltaMath and Khan Academy, as well as traditional approaches to stay connected and to help students meet their learning goals. With Zoom, she conducts lessons using Smart Notebook and a stylus, and engage students with questions as if we were in a traditional classroom. Zoom also allows the use of Breakout Rooms for small group discussions and opportunities for collaboration. Outside these virtual means, students benefit from the communication and support from the deans, special education teachers and math department colleagues. Traditional approaches such as student outreach and parent outreach prove to be essential in this difficult time.
In Chris Menick’s 422 and 442 classes, he utilizes Zoom and Screencastify for live instruction and Google Classroom to offer video tutorials. In 422, he is beginning to assess by posting quizzes on Delta Math and having students upload their work to Google Classroom.
Adam Wagner has been using a document camera to create instructional videos which I post on YouTube for my students to watch as well as giving them typical homework assignments which they submit via Google Classroom. Delta Math assignments serve as test review--primarily because of the feature that students will see worked out solutions after they answer each question and have the ability to look at practice examples and instructional videos.
The math department continues to investigate and share creative ways to engage the students in this new environment.
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In the Drama Club's Zoom with Alex Brightman, he told us about his path to Broadway, always saying yes to opportunities, and that one should never call oneself an aspiring actor... “You’re always an actor, never aspiring!” All the students present had a wonderful time, and we even got to play an Improv game with BrightMonster: Let's Make a Date! The Acting II classes continue to write original work for the showcase, and the Improv class is currently working on long form. (photo below)
In the Theater Tech class, students are learning to use audacity to create and edit audio recordings and sound effects. We will learn how to create a story using time, volume, and direction of sound. I attached the instruction sheet below and created an account on
freesound
to pull open source/ creative commons sound effect files.
Scarsdale string students continue rehearsing at home. Here's a
link
for your listening pleasure.
Students in band are are currently planning a virtual recital featuring solo works under the direction of Dr. Jason Noble.
Choir teacher Michael Schmidt shares that "At the start of e-learning, most of us who teach ensembles had to rethink out curriculum. I started by surveying the students in the choral ensembles to see what they felt were our values as a choral community. I wanted to use these values to structure the projects we would be doing moving forward. Two themes emerged: working together as a community and conveying a message through performance." Here is a
link
to selected responses from students.
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In Science, we have been using a range of digital platforms and products to deliver content and connect with students. What has emerged is a pattern of alternating instruction. New content is often delivered through a product such as Screencastify, or by posting a video (either a self-production or selection from another source). This is usually followed by a recitation of the content through a video conferencing option, such as Zoom, which also allows us to break the students into groups for discussion. This follows our traditional classes, particularly in courses with problem-based applications. Teachers introduce a new concept, and then provide time for students to process by asking for clarification and enrichment as needed, both in the whole class and small group setting.
We have tried to recreate the hand-on experiences of science demonstrations and lab activities to the extent possible. Using videos, household items, or equipment that teachers were able to retrieve from school, we have demonstrated concepts and their applications. Teachers also have access to simulations that allow for virtual experimentation, many of which we use regularly as classroom activities or for homework. And in some instances, we have been able to preserve engineering projects and lab experiments that we regularly use in our traditional classes. Students in our project-based physics course build and test the weight capacity of boats each spring. The physics team adapted this project to use materials that students could access at home. In another example, chemistry students never enjoyed practicing conversions and reactant calculations so much! They were asked to analyze the ingredient amounts and then follow the completed recipe for making fudge.
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Elizabeth Harris’s 9th-grade World History class engaged in an Islamic art project where students selected and researched a piece of Islamic art or architecture (either modern or ancient), and then created their own interpretive version of the piece, using one of the Five Pillars of their choosing as a guide. Here is the link to some of the images
Some examples of student work
In David Sherrin’s 10th-grade World History class, students used his
Joseph and Myra Brandman Virtual Holocaust Museum
, created in memory of his grandparents, to learn many of the important details of Holocaust. (See link to online museum here)
In March, all five of the 11th-grade American Studies English and Social Studies teams traveled to Washington, DC for the annual overnight trip. While at the US Capitol, Elizabeth Harris’s class met Congressman Will Hurd (R-TX) and were featured on his "
Hurd on the Hill
" Instagram trivia series. (See Photo and link to Instagram)
In Heather Waters’ 12th-grade
Peacing-it-Together Global Citizenship class, students learned about their own capacities to give back into our various communities. In early March, students traveled to Mt. Vernon to serve meals at the CRA Soup Kitchen and interviewing the guests about hunger and poverty in America. (See photo)
In Chris Paulison’s AT Macroeconomics class, students engaged in a project investigating the 2008 Great Recession and the effectiveness of various economic policies.
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This past month has certainly looked different for all of us. Rest assured, however, that LRC teachers continue to support and engage with our students in this new type of learning environment. Due to the particular nature in which we provide support and teaching to the LRC students, we identified a variety of practices that have been put into place for the duration of Distance Learning which include teachers checking in with their students via email or Google Classroom, and Zoom meetings which are scheduled either as group or individual sessions. Additionally, there are multiple check-ins throughout the week to provide support and engage with our students.
CSE meetings are moving forward through Zoom. We have been able to conduct annual reviews as well as reevaluations and, just like in our “in person” meeting, we will review this year’s progress and ensure that we have a plan in place for the next school year. Meetings are currently being scheduled for May and June. Please reach out to your student’s LRC teacher if you have any questions.
Right before the school closure, we, along with the Counseling Department, hosted our annual College Night for Parents of Students with Learning Differences. We had a great turnout and parents were able to hear about the process from an experienced parent as well as a college admissions officer.
The LRC teachers are looking forward to reconnecting with everyone in person as soon as we possibly can. For now, please know that we are here to help and do not hesitate to reach out during this time.
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In
The Three Qualities Leaders Need in an Uncertain Future,
Suzanne Gibbs Howard states, “The ability to navigate ambiguity-and to guide people and organizations without knowing what’s ahead-will be one of the key leadership qualities of our time… According to the World Economic Forum, creativity is among the top three skills needed to thrive in 2020, along with other capabilities infused with the human touch: complex problem solving and critical thinking… Creative leadership takes conditions that are anxiety provoking for many, and turns them into opportunities.” These are the skills that we focus on in our STEAM program. We wonder how we might turn this challenge into opportunities for our students. Doing something is empowering, and helps students feel better psychologically, especially when life is filled with uncertainty.
App Design students are designing an app for a population who needs to stay connected right now-the elderly. They will interview people to discover their needs, and then design and build an app. In Design/Build, students are redesigning a work-from-home-space for someone in their household. They will interview to establish both physical and psychological needs and then actually construct or redesign a space. In AT Entrepreneurship, our teams are heading towards their final pitch. Stay tuned for an invitation to the virtual pitch night.
Some classes were able to continue learning skills remotely through online platforms like
Fusion 360
or
Tinkercad Circuits
. If you’re looking for something to distract you right now, try some of their tutorials.
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The Student Government kicked off the third quarter with a campaign to raise awareness for the victims of domestic abuse. Partnering with the STAR Club, government members sold purple T-shirts and painted their peers’ nails purple, donating all of the proceeds to Safe Horizon and Hope’s Door. Following the move to Distance Learning, the School Government has been communicating with students via Instagram and Zoom sessions, hosting friendly competitions to maintain a sense of community during isolation. In addition, Class Governments have been trying to figure out ways to work with their grades, using platforms including Zoom and Kahoots. On May 1st, the school government will host a virtual house meeting for school and class government officers, as well as faculty and administrators.
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The World Languages department has embraced distance learning with our customary
sangfroid
. Students in language continue to practice all four modalities: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Two common refrains frequently heard during our departmental Zoom sessions are: “What would we do without Google Classroom?” and “Zoom is my new favorite platform!.”
Indeed, Zoom has become a fundamental tool that enables our teachers to connect with students from afar. Google classroom facilitates the submission of written work, spoken recordings, video and numerous presentations. Teachers are experimenting with new products such as
Flipgrid.
Edpuzzle and Pear Deck as well as more familiar platforms such as Quizlet, Kahoot and Bingo. Some Spanish teachers are also using subscription services provided by the department such as Sr. Wooly and Bablingua. Many of our students are gaining extensive practice in listening comprehension activities through podcasts, films, authentic television series and online textbook resources. Many are practicing writing through reflective assignments on short films, short stories, current events and more.
The Honors French students recently took the
Grand Concours
online via Zoom. The AT French students have been studying France's response to the current pandemic and how French schools are handling distance learning.
Some Spanish students are creating videos of their daily routine in our unique circumstances, highlighting what they are doing to remain calm and cope with stress while others created a playlist of favorite Spanish songs. AT Spanish language and literature students are reading short stories by literary greats Jorge Luis Borges, Isaac Aisemberg and Julio Cortázar.
Our Mandarin students
are currently working on performance-based projects. For example, students in Mandarin 323 are working on a weather forecast video, and Honors Mandarin 344 students are working on a project in which they have to propose a new course for SHS using Mandarin.
Some of our Latin students were treated to the newly acquired online practice tool called Lumina. Many Latin students recently took the National Latin exam online. Current class topics in Latin include a musical version of the Odyssey, plagues in ancient Rome, detective stories set in Ancient Rome, Latin and Minecraft and Latin and yoga. Let us not forget the importance of wellness,
Namaste
!
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Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.
- George Washington Carver
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