Four Lyme-Old Lyme High School students were recognized at this year’s Connecticut Scholastic Art Awards. Senior Connie Pan deserves special recognition for receiving the Best in Portfolio Award as well as Gold Keys in both Drawing and Portfolio. Connie also earned one of two cash scholarships from Connecticut Woman Artists as well as a Scholarship offer from the University of Harford Art School. Senior Olivia Bartlett also earned Gold Keys in both Portfolio and Mixed Media, a Silver Key in Mixed Media and a University of Hartford Scholarship offer. Senior Aidan Powers earned both Gold Key and Honorable Mention in Digital Media, while Senior Marina Melluzzo took a Silver Key in Ceramics and Glass. 
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​           Congratulations to all who participated! And a special
  CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR AWARD RECIPIENTS!

Congratulations to Hayden Saunders who, for the second year in a row, was selected as a Connecticut Honorable Mention recipient of the 2021 National Center for Women & Information Technology Award for Aspirations in Computing.  

​Hayden is recognized for her computing-related aspirations and for demonstrating outstanding aptitude and interest in information technology and computing.  
                           Well done Hayden! 

Environmental Issues in Spain
by Abby Sicuranza, Hannah Britt, Ellie Wells, Fiona Hufford, Abby Speckhals, Melanie Warren, and Elise DeBernardo
 
For our Spanish Honor Society bulletin board, we chose to spread awareness about Spain's environmental issues. These issues make for unhealthy lifestyles in many regions of Spain and other parts of the world. We highlighted pollution, climate change, deforestation, and solutions that people of all ages can participate in. For example, adults can join support groups that focus on improving the environment in Spain, while students and children can make better day-to-day decisions such as choosing to recycle and trying not to be wasteful with food and water. We think that it's very important to have global awareness and realize that your choices do matter. Go check out our bulletin board for more information!

Theme: Spanish culture outside of Latin America
by: Will Larson
 
For our Spanish Honors Society bulletin board, we chose the subject of Spanish culture outside of Latin America. We included a variety of countries such as the Philippines, Morocco, Equatorial Guinea, Guam, and Belgium, all former Spanish imperial holdings. In each country, the Spanish cultural influences can be seen in aspects such as food, music, religion, and traditions. We were also able to explore how the Spanish language intermixed with native tongues to create Spanish creole languages we know today. We had a lot of fun making the bulletin board and hope you can take a look at it right outside of Mr. Vazquez's room!

​On Wednesday morning, the Parent Advisory Board surprised us all with a wonderful treat! Every single person who works in our building was presented with a bag full of goodies including a beautiful, artful cookie from josephine's bakery (each item individually wrapped, of course, to comply with our Covid restrictions.) Each bag included a heartfelt Thank You  with a number on the back and while students were enjoying some game-fun in Advisory, five numbers were drawn and winners of the additional raffle prizes were announced. What a wonderful way to brighten up our day and celebrate 100 days of in-person learning.

During the half day PD on Friday, teachers  had an opportunity to ​WIN! (What I Need). Along with individual work time, there were opportunities to participate in  the Zen and Now Mindfulness and Movement workshop, and/or the opportunity to connect with colleagues in a team-building activity. With this activity, teachers were put into teams to conquer, as a team, four different activities like - building a birdhouse, drawing a 3-D image, or playing and singing a song, to name a few. Not only did this bring us together with our colleagues, something that is much needed in this time of disconnectedness, as well as provide some great laughs, community spirit, a mental break, build our social emotional learning competencies and createssome fantastic WINners! Take a look:

Beginning with second semester, we have had the pleasure of welcoming our Pet Partners from Project Paws. On Friday, Ezra and Penny joined us and visited the Life Skills class along with some other students. Take a look!

​Amnesty International spent two days researching various aspects of Police Violence around the world. We wrote passages, found case studies and shared images to spread awareness of this topic. Please stop by the bulletin board in the commons to inform yourself about what Police Violence is, as well as solutions for this topic.

AP Biology took 15 minutes of class for a little “dragon” genetics SEL (Social Emotional Learning). Students used dragon traits to create a composite drawing of their mythical creatures. Take a look at them in action!

On February 8, Phoebe Lampos testified via Zoom before the Public Health Committee at the Capitol in support of Senate Bill # 326, (An Act Prohibiting the Sale of Flavored Cigarettes, Tobacco Products, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Vapor Products).
To view Phoebe's testimony (which she wrote independently) along with her 'on the spot' responses, see video below.

     WELL DONE PHEOBE!

​Mr. Wang spoke to Mrs. Traver's Investment classes about the Asian Stock Markets emphasizing the Chinese markets. His presentation included the differences between the markets, a discussion about the Chinese economy, and culture. One difference between  the markets is that red means the stock is going up on the Chinese stock market and green means the stock is going down. Just the opposite of the US stock markets. Mr. Wang will be back in March to complete his very interesting presentation.

The Sustainability Committee is excited to announce that over 2000 pounds of plastic film has been collected by Region 18 in the Trex Challenge! Thank you to all that have participated! The challenge doesn’t officially end until April 15, so please continue to send in film with your students. We hope you have grown more aware of just how much plastic is out there in the world and part of our everyday lives. 

If it stretches, even a little, it’s good for trex. If it doesn’t stretch, or makes a crinkly sound or can be torn like paper, please leave it out of the trex collection. #2 and #4 plastic films are always accepted. Some examples of items that are NOT acceptable include:

• Hard plastic (produce containers)
• Compostable/biodegradable film (because these may not contain any plastic)
  
• Film that has any amount of food residue (deli bags are commonly sent in with food particles)
• Candy/ice cream/granola bar bags or wrappers
• Cellophane-type film (think floral arrangements or holiday gift bags that make a crinkly/crunchy sound)
• Prewashed salad mix bags
• Frozen food bags (frozen berry or seafood bags)
• Six-pack rings
• Pet/bird/livestock feed bags are typically (unless they are clearly marked with a 2 or 4 recycle symbol)

When sending in your film from home, please remember, it must be COMPLETELY clean, COMPLETELY dry, COMPLETELY empty and COMPLETELY free from food residue. Please remove air from pillow pack bubble wrap. When in doubt, throw it out; or you can email Taylor.karencharlotte@gmail.com.

Thanks for your continued participation in the Region 18 Trex Challenge and helping keep our planet clean!

This week's advisory lesson plan across all classes was to build community,  relationships and  have some much needed fun! Each homeroom selected some sort of fun activity or played a game like Jenga, Apples to Apples, Scattegories, or Catch Phrase to help connect us and take a moment for some much needed comic relief.  Take a look at ​Mr. D ’Aquila's freshman homeroom take a break and enjoy some fun and bonding.  Pictured is headspace, and “pair up”.  A fun Wednesday morning!

This past month, Mrs. Tamariz, a friend of the Welsh’s, presented to the Spanish National Honor Society last month. Mrs. Tamariz informed the students about how and where she traveled, as well as how she used Spanish. Mrs Tamariz was born in Mexico and grew up speaking Spanish and English. Mrs Tamariz started working in the coast guard, but now she works in global health and travels around the world helping developing countries with their health infrastructures/public health outbreaks. Currently she is based working out of Africa.