Congratulations  to  Connie Pan for being selected by the Science Department as the January Rotary Student of the Month.  Connie Pan is a young woman of many talents one of which is that of an outstanding science student.  Connie’s passion for science began with her long-time involvement in Science Olympiad as both a participant and coach. Academically, she has strong critical thinking skills, excels in all areas of science, and actively seeks out opportunities to apply her knowledge in environmental conservation and resource sustainability. She is one of the founding members of the LOLHS Environmental club, a student member of Region 18 Sustainability committee and a Youth Conservation Core member at Northwoods Stewardship Center. She also attended Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer programs in Neuroscience and Paleobiology. Connie is considering journalism, sciences, or the arts in college.

         Nice work Connie!

​Mrs. Traver and Mrs. Hedwall wanted to help students manage their stress at the end of the quarter, so they scheduled a lesson with Ms. Ulasevich in their High School 101 class. Ms. Ulasevich taught a lesson about self-regulation, specifically with movement and stretching exercises. The students learned both energizing and calming stretches they could do in their seats throughout the day to address a variety of moods and emotions. 

​The LOLPC is sponsoring a virtual 'Hidden in Plain Sight' presentation for parents, caregivers, and community members.  

In case you missed the editorial published in The Day on Saturday in the Opinion section, here it is! It is worth the read.  In such abnormal and unprecedented times, Lyme-Old Lyme really does shine.

The Day
Published January 08. 2021 5:51PM 
Lindsay Joslyn
Superintendent of Lyme-Old Lyme Public schools, Ian Neviaser, is proud that all the students in his district have been able to come back to school, full time in-person since Sept. 1.
"When we shut down last March, it was really hard on the kids and the teachers. So we sat down and started planning back in April and into the summer on what we were going to do. Hybrid is a nightmare and not an effective model for our teachers, so it really came down to two choices: we were either all in or all out. We decided to go all in and put all our effort into making that happen safely."
Lyme Old-Lyme Public Schools has five public school buildings within its district — a high school, middle school, two kindergarten through fifth grade elementary schools, and one Pre-K center — that collectively teach approximately 1,300 students.
Neviaser explains that by following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines of mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing, Lyme-Old Lyme schools were able to welcome their students back into their classrooms. It took a task force coming together to make a plan to re-open.

The 2021 season brings new challenges and opportunities. If you have not yet heard, the LOLHS Robotics Team is designing and building a Satellite…a CubeSat to be specific. The details of our mission are yet to be determined. Saturday, January 9 was the kick-off meeting as they plan to take the Techno Ticks into orbit!
To learn more about CubeSats... take a look:

First, congratulations to Mary Seidner and the LYSB for their amazing work! LYSB and the LOLPC has been awarded a Federal DFC grant!   This allows the continuation of all the amazing Prevention Work in LOL for the next 5 years!
And for what is coming up on their calendar... take a look!

​Alum, Jared DeCarlo, now works for Boston Dynamics and wrote the programming code for these robots to dance. Amazing!

I'm not sure you had a chance during the holiday rush to see the article published in The Day on December 23rd... recognizing our own Emily DeRoehn as the All-Area Girls' Soccer Player of the year. 
See article, photos and video below!

Published December 23. 2020 5:06PM | Updated December 23. 2020 5:31PM
​By Gavin Keefe   Day staff writer

Emily DeRoehn prefers to keep busy. She believes she’s more productive that way.
So her daily schedule is usually quite full. 
DeRoehn competes in a sport during every season — soccer in the fall, basketball in winter and outdoor track in spring. 
She’s involved in several activities at Old Lyme High School, serving as editor of the yearbook and on the CIAC’s student athletic advisory board.
She also recently started working with athletic director Hildie Heck to help Wildcat teams get involved with community service projects. 
When DeRoehn has free time, she’ll go outside and juggle a soccer ball, something she tries to do 30 minutes every day. 
“I think I function better when I’m busy,” DeRoehn said. 
Her impressive accomplishments back that up. 
DeRoehn excels academically and athletically, belonging to the National Honor Society and earning all-state status in girls' soccer for the second straight season this fall. She also was named the Shoreline Conference Player of the Year in the sport. 
A senior defender, DeRoehn is The Day’s 2020 All-Area Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year.
“I’ve enjoyed Emily quite a bit,” Old Lyme coach Paul Gleason said. “Emily had a great career with us. I’m going to miss her dearly. She’s quite a soccer player, quite a young woman and quite a leader. I can go on and on about her. She’s really top of the line in my estimation. 

By: Juanjo Vazquez
​It’s the Three Kings, or Reyes Magos (Melchior, Gaspar and Baltazar), who bring children their gifts in Spain, not Santa Claus (although he is becoming more popular now, too) on January 6, not Christmas Day. On the night of January 5, the Kings parade through the towns across the country with their entourage of helpers, animals and elaborate floats, throwing sweets out for the children. When the kids return home, they leave out their shoes for the Kings to fill with presents overnight.
At the National Spanish Honor Society, we created a new tradition in which students leave their shoes and if they were good members, they will receive candies (if they didn’t participate over the year, they will get coal). We are also aware of the Secret Santa so students brought a secret present for a friend. It was a nice way to finish the year.

These last few days of 2020 at LOLHS have been quite festive. Faculty kept our spirits light and bright while celebrating 8-days of levity with lots of laughs and fun activities. And then to top it off, on Wednesday at the end of the day, we held our annual  holiday assembly - live streamed. This was quite a hit! We enjoyed some holiday music from our Wind Ensemble and Select Singers as well as some fun holiday competitions between classes like the jingle bell hop, ornament toss, the Santa limbo, and balloon pop!

Thank you to our Student Leaders for organizing this event, our Select Singers and Wind Ensemble for their AMAZING performances, WLYM for their technical savvy, wonderful flexibility, and finally Oliver Berry and George Danes for being our funny and festive MCs. Below you can find the entire recording of the event along with some other videos and photos that show our Wildcat Holiday Spirit. I hope you enjoy!

Alli Behnhke, LYSB's Prevention Coordinator, is hosting a workshop the week after the Christmas Holiday focusing on healthy choices, nutrition, wellness, etc.    She is a certified Health Coach and believes in our own bio-individuality to make the best choices for wellness, health, and empowerment.
 Please join her to learn more about how your body detoxifies and more!
​Registration information and link below!

The Unified Sports spread some holiday cheer last week in Ms. Corah's Workshop decorating gingerbread houses. Fun was had by all! Take a look.

Below is the revised school calendar reflecting last week’s snow day. Last day of school is now at June 16, 2021!

During unit 3, Influences of Beauty and Art, students studied and analyzed different sources and different points of view on whether graffiti is a form of art or vandalism.  Students were asked for homework to think about their favorite Spanish word and to create graffiti.  Students had to present in Spanish to the class in a circle the meaning of the graffiti and why they chose that word.  It was interesting to find how the words were connected with past sensory experiences; for example, students described smells, sounds, feelings, etc

Enrique Iglesias has sold more than 180 million albums worldwide and currently holds the record for most #1 charts in history. He is one of three artists we researched. We chose to do this topic for our bulletin board to show people in our community a type of music or genre they may have never heard before. In Spanish Honor Society we wish to educate ourselves as well as the community on Spanish speaking topics that may differ in our culture.
 
By: Franki, Sky, Sophie

AP European students added some levity while studying Absolutism and the  European State Consolidation (1650-1750). Each group, representing France, Russia, England and Central/ Eastern Europe,  were experts - in costume - presenting to their classmates and explaining how "their" monarch consolidated power and ruled absolutely. After the presentations, students took a "gallery walk" to each region in order to record pertinent information which enabled them to discuss how the absolute monarchies had similarities in consolidating their power... ultimately  through military might, control of religion, and economically by raising taxes.
Take a look: