Every year the LOLHS National Honor Society sponsors a Toy Drive to help support our community during the holiday season. This year, we are promoting and encouraging that every homeroom group help support this effort by selecting a berry from the giving wreath to purchase a gift or by donating $1.00 to put toward a gift card that will go to the same cause. Berries on the wreath are suggestions and represent only a portion of all the people in our area in need.
Gift  or card... all will be greatly appreciated and are needed! I am hoping that we will have 100% participation from our homerooms... and based on our amazing Wildcat pride and spirit, I am confident we will achieve the goal!
      WE CAN DO THIS LOLHS!

It is an honor to  recognize both Sarah and Sam for their academic achievement. They represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors who have been named 2018 National Merit Scholar Semifinalists. Semifinalists are designated on a state-representational basis. The number of Semifinalists named in each state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Juniors enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test). The PSAT is administered yearly by LOLHS to all 9th, 10th and 11th graders and serves as an initial screen of program entrants.  
                                                           WELL DONE SAM AND SARAH! 

The Student Advisory Council (SAC) sponsored a Thanksgiving Day Luncheon for the entire High School faculty and staff on Monday, November 20. This idea was spearheaded and organized by a subgroup of SAC who planned, organized and prepared the delicious meal to simply say "THANK YOU" to all of the people who help and support them on a daily basis.  For decorations, students wrote 'thank you' notes on strips of orange paper and created pumpkins with these notes as table center pieces. It was a wonderful and yummy way to kick off the season...
     THANK YOU EMILY BALOCCA, BRYNN MCGLINCHEY, JADA FUENTES AND SARAH HAYWARD!

Click on the pictures below to get the recipes of two main courses that were prepared:

Lyme-Old Lyme Swim team may be small but it is mighty! We would like to recognize the team for their hard work this year. They moved up to 15th place overall in states this year and many of the swimmers have qualified for state finals. What an achievement!
​Way to go Wildcat / Warriors!
                                                 
         To read the full article... click here.

National Honor Society helped our community by encouraging the entire school to bring in canned goods all week long. On Friday morning before school, students boxed up and transported the all the goods that were collected during the week to LYSB. This was probably one of the best food drives that we have every delivered.
                                    Nice work NHS!

The Valley/Old Lyme Football Team beat Haddam Killingworth on Friday night and won the Principal’s Cup , the Pequot League Sacassus Division Title, and now go on to the CIAC Class S playoffs.  It was their 6th straight win of this highly valued Cup.  The JV team played their hearts out as well on Saturday to beat the Haddam JV the next morning, which was a quite contentious game! They played their hearts out. 
           Well done Warriors and good luck at the playoffs!

The Old Lyme Players' performance this weekend of Radium Girls was outstanding! From the costumes, set design and construction, directing, acting and behind the scene work... every detail of this production was seemingly calculated and purposeful and met with great success! This was a wonderful production of a relatively depressing story. It is a play based on a true story about women factory workers in the late 1920s who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. 

            Well done Old Lyme Players!
Congratulations to all who made this play a true success. 

Students in Modern US History (MUSH) learn about various immigrant groups that settled in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries at the "Immigration fair".  Each group researched an ethnic group, created a display, scrapbook, and made a historically inspired dish to share.

On November 10th Lyme-Old Lyme High School community came together to collectively remember our fallen brothers and sisters and celebrate and honor all veterans for their service. Our ceremonies began and concluded with the presentation and retrieval of colors by the Color Guard which set the stage for our wonderful assembly.  The band and chorus gave their amazing and inspiring performances of the patriotic tunes. The VFW presented the winner of the Voice of Democracy Essay Contest to Alex Williams, who offered us an excerpt of his award-winning eloquently written essay. And, to top if off, we had the great fortune of welcoming Caroline LaCour's own grandfather,  Mr. Morris LeCour,  a WWII survivor.  It was a heartfelt, warm celebration recognizing and remembering all those who fought and fight for us.
​                                                 Thank you to our Veterans!
        Thank you to Olwen Logan, Publisher & Editor, Shoreline Web News LLC , for pictures below.

We wanted to share exciting updates regarding some targeted interventions we will be implementing in The Academic Success Center (TASC) at Lyme-Old Lyme High School. The students were given the opportunity to self-assess their Executive Functioning. Specifically, each was able to identify personal strengths and weaknesses within the following skills:  ​​

• Emotional Control
• Sustained Attention
• Planning/Prioritization
• Time Management
• Metacognition
• Working Memory
• Flexibility
• Task Initiation
• Organization
• Goal Directed Persistence.  

Response Inhibition ​Our team evaluated the results and developed targeted interventions for the three identified weaknesses of Planning/Prioritization, Task Initiation, and Sustained Attention.
 
The TASC Team has created multiple forms for the students to use. The students will self-assess their academic performance and determine reasons for their performance.  Following that self assessment, all students will have access to the following forms “The Plan for Academic Completion” and “The Action Plan form.  These two forms, with tutor assistance, will be utilized by all students who self-select to use them, by students who are earning less than 70% in their academic classes, and by students who have had absences and need help managing current assignments along with assistance completing missing work.
 
We will also have the students self-assess their academic progress twice a grading period. This will facilitate our students’ self awareness of their academic standing.  It will also assist in their identification of the need to use the Action Plan form or the Plan for Academic Completion form, or both, to achieve success. 
 
Marci Kania, School Psychologist
Mark Popeleski, TASC Math Tutor
Lisa Daly, TASC English Literature Tutor

Saturday's game against Holy Cross was an exciting one. Once again and for the third time, the girls soccer team brings home the State Class S Championship Trophy!

​Congratulations to Reed Spitzer for being selected by the Math Department as the Rotary Student of the Month. Mr. Zubek remarks that Reed's love of math and logical reasoning permeates all aspects of his daily life.  His mathematical ability and conceptual understanding are amazing.  He spends much of his free time independently learning new mathematical concepts of courses that he hasn’t even taken yet.   Currently, Reed is taking Linear Algebra at Connecticut College.  He is one of the top scorers for the Math team and was also chosen as Outstanding Junior from Lyme Old Lyme High School and honored at the Shoreline breakfast last year.  Nice work Reed!

Saturday, November 11, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 15, 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 18, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
at Old Lyme Marketplace near Big Y 
Old Lyme Police Officers will be conducting their annual Thanksgiving Food Drive at the Old Lyme Marketplace on Halls Road near the Big Y.   All food donated will be forwarded to the Lymes' Youth Service Bureau for distribution to families in need. Food will also be given to stock the pantries at Lymes' Senior Center and the Town of Old Lyme Social Services.
Families in need of food should contact LYSB at 860-434-7208 x0. 
Donations of non-perishable food can be brought directly to LYSB, 59 Lyme Street between November 13th and November 20th.
Thank you to our Old Lyme Police Officers
 for their support of the L/OL Community!

On November 3, the LOLHS Electric Vehicle Design Class brought their creation to the annual competition at Lime Rock.  Although the students did not race the vehicle due to some complications, the vehicle was beautiful and appeared ready for a victory. 

The National Honor Society and the Community Service Club are teaming up to sponsor a Food Drive for individuals and families in the Lyme – Old Lyme community for Thanksgiving. There were members from both clubs collecting donations or cans during Report Card Night on Thursday, November 9th. They will also be going into homerooms asking the students to help out, as well. 

November 3rd at LOLHS proved to be quite a success. After the academic classes finished at 11:15, students and faculty selected from a myriad of  workshops - each, in their own way, having a focus on health and wellness. Participants came away with at least one strategy that can be used on a daily basis... whether it was learning how to create with food or words, movements or sounds, all participants were challenged to take the time to think about how we can be more mindful of our health and wellness. There were 34 workshops to select from ... take a look below at the list and all the presenters and businesses that sponsored the event.