Have you ever heard of the world renown Newport Jazz Festival? I bet many of you have, or have actually attended it... or maybe even wished you had.  But, how AMAZING is it to actually perform on the main stage? One of our own, Lyme-Old Lyme High School junior, Sophia Griswold did just that this past summer! 

Sophia was accepted to the Berklee Global Jazz Institute - a 5 day institute where students from around the world worked alongside professional musicians. Sophia was a U.S. representative among students from Argentina, South Africa, Australia, Israel, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Chile, Puerto Rica, Panama - all young, talented musicians invited to learn, rehearse, work alongside some major musicians in Jazz including Grammy Award winner Danilo Perez (piano), Tia Fuller (saxophone), Terri Lyne (drums), and Jason Palmer (trumpet) along with other Berklee faculty.  

When asked what impacted her the most, Sophia responded "the kids were the biggest thing - I learned so much - all the other kids were so good that they pushed you - we challenged each other to become better".

Lymes Youth Service Bureau would like to remind all families who have not  yet  returned the permission form in to be included in the PTO Family Directory, to do so SOON!  Don’t miss out!
Please return the form to school asap.  If you need another form, please access this link: FAMILY DIRECTORY
        We hope to have the Family Directory ready to distribute in October.

Here is an interesting article that was published in Education Week last week.

By Evie Blad on September 12, 2018 12:19 PM
Youth use of electronic cigarettes "has reached an epidemic proportion," the leader of the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
He gave the manufacturers of popular vaping devices, like Juul, 60 days to make plans to limit their sales to minors or risk seeing their products pulled from the market pending new regulations. He also announced new enforcement actions against retailers who sell the products.
"We're committed to the comprehensive approach to address addiction to nicotine that we announced last year," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said. But at the same time, we see clear signs that youth use of electronic cigarettes has reached an epidemic proportion, and we must adjust certain aspects of our comprehensive strategy to stem this clear and present danger.
Vaping products are popular among adults who use them as an off-ramp to quit smoking traditional cigarettes. But public health experts warn they have a thriving secondary market among young people, who may become addicted to the nicotine devices even if they have never smoked a traditional cigarette.
As Education Week has reported, schools have struggled to detect small vaping devices, like the Juul, and to keep students from carrying them—or even using them—in their hallways, bathrooms, and classrooms.
Among the concerns Gottlieb highlighted: Some e-cigarette flavors seem targeted at young people, and e-cigarette companies that sell their products online may be prone to "straw purchases," in which one person buys a large quantity of devices to offer them for resale to underage users.

This annual event sponsored by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture features local farms and celebrates the diversity of fresh, local, and seasonal foods connecting farmers and producers of Connecticut Grown products to chefs and culinary professionals. A special side dish is prepared every day that comes with a meal and local apple cider, apples and maple kettle corn made in Old Lyme can be purchased as well. ​ Check out this week's menu!

As you may know, LOLHS has been utilizing a learning management system (LMS) called Canvas for the past two years.  Canvas helps to organize and manage information between student and teacher, such as: homework assignments, course expectations, course resources, and submission of completed work, etc.  We now are able to allow parents to be “observers” in their child’s Canvas classes through Canvas Parent.  Canvas Parent enhances the potential for parents to engage in their children's education
Parents can then link their Canvas account to their student's account so they can see assignment due dates, announcements, and other course content; however, this content is limited. A parent can only view the course content and cannot participate in the course.  Directions on how to create a Parent Canvas account are below.
A few important considerations as we enter the third year of implementation:  

• Parents have limited access in Canvas and will not see all content as an “observer”.
• Course content may vary by teacher or department depending on Canvas use.
• Grades that appear in Canvas are not a complete grade profile of a student as Canvas grades are only grades generated through ‘speed-grader’ in Canvas. Please refer to PowerSchool for all  grades and comments related to student progress.

 
How To Create A Canvas Parent Account:
NOTE – your student needs to be part of this process (see step 4).

1. Go to the Region 18 website, pull down the Quick Links menu and select Canvas Parent (Click here to access this page)
2. Click on the link that says, “Click Here For An Account”.
3. Enter your name, email address, proposed password, and a student pairing code, then click on the Start Participating button.
4. A student obtains a pairing code for a parent by logging into Canvas as him/herself, and navigating to Account and then Settings, where the student clicks on the Pair with Observer button.  A paring code will be generated immediately.  Note: each pairing code expires after 7 days, or after one use.​

Mrs. Leen, along with her student committee: Hannah Morrison, Katherine Atkinson and Emily Tan,  are proud to announce that the Math Academic Center will be open again in the library starting Monday, September 17th. The Center will be open to all students and is staffed by students. It will be opened during school hours, including fifteen minutes before and after school.

Any student with homework questions can come to the Center for guidance and support.  All students are encouraged to stop by and see what the Center is about!

If you have any questions you can contact Mrs. Leen @ leenb@region18.org. 

These first few days of school, I have had several conversations with some students regarding proper attire.  LOLHS dress code guidelines, which can be referred to in the Parent/ Student Handbook under 'Student Attire', seem to have been pushed aside by some of our students.  I know that after having the freedom of summer come to a screeching halt and yet the intense heat continue, it can sometimes be confusing as to what is considered appropriate dress for the classrooms and halls of LOLHS.  The heat has been intense outside but thankfully, we do have air conditioning to keep us cool... sometimes even too cool. 

We take great pride in the appearance of our students and believe that student dress reflects upon the quality of our school.  In order to help create a positive and professional learning environment we ask the following:

• Clothing must NOT be inappropriately revealing, oversized, or immodestly undersized (e.g. halter-tops, off the shoulder or low-cut tops, spaghetti straps, bare midriffs, short shorts and extremely short skirts – recommended fingertip length) and ... must conceal undergarments at all times. 

I am hoping that together we can help guide our students in their wardrobe choices. Thank you in advance for your awareness and support  as we confront the never ending challenge of balancing  teen fashion and the professional, academic environment at Lyme-Old Lyme High School.

School picture day
scheduled for this week has been
     RESCHEDULED 
Pictures will be taken
during school on
Tuesday October 2