Forty-nine South Orangetown Middle School students traveled to Quebec in February for a bi-annual educational trip organized by World Language teacher Marie-Laure Spatz. “Through the trip, they discover a francophone neighbor and new culture,” Ms. Spatz explained. “I want them to open up to the world and this trip does that, it inspires them to be curious.”

Quebec City was built by the French and has a European feel, which made an impression on students. “The city’s architecture is unlike any I have ever seen, it is beautiful and unique,” reported eighth-grader Adam G. “The city is split into two parts…The lower part of Quebec has a more old-time feel to it; there are story buildings, stone streets, and beautiful lights hanging. The upper part is more of a modern city, big buildings, and lots and lots of stores. We had lots of time to walk around and experience the city itself.”

The four-day trip offered students real-world opportunities to develop their French language skills and included a walking tour of the city, visits to two interactive history museums, dog sledding, and a visit with students at Ecole secondaire de la Cité. Scheduling the excursion during Winter Carnival allows students to tour one of the world’s few ice hotels and see artworks produced during ice and snow sculpture competitions.

“On our trip in Québec, one of the most impressive things we saw was L’Hôtel de Glace. The entire building was made solely of ice and had many statues made of ice, a chapel, and several hotel rooms with beds. I was fascinated that you could pay to sleep on ice,” said eighth-grader Matt. T. “After seeing the hotel in real life after hearing about it, it is more impressive than I had ever imagined.”

The SOMS Quebec trip began in 2007 with just 17 students, but has been operating at capacity for the past several years. Ms. Spatz expressed her appreciation of staff chaperones Amanda Duffy, Greg Sullivan, Mei Yip-Chen and Joe Onativia, and added, “Thank you also to our administration for supporting us in helping our students to become global citizens!”

The SOCSD Science Leadership Team met in a K-12 forum to discuss changes to enhance curriculum and the New York State assessments. The meeting opened with a challenge for team members: Build a sound-proof case for a cell phone. Science Instructional Coaches Brian Newburger and Samantha Levine chose this activity because sound and waves are studied in grades 1, 4, 6, and in high school physics. Teachers discussed how to modify the activity to fit other areas of study and adapt the project to their specific grade level… Continue reading Dr. Culot’s blog.

Over the past few years, SOCSD has focused on expanding students’ essential technology skills, starting in kindergarten, to include coding, 3D printing and robotics, through both curriculum and the development of school makerspaces. Learn more about the most recent meeting of the SOCSD Technology Leadership Team by reading Dr. Culot’s blog post.

In his latest Superintendent Blog post, Dr. Pritchard writes, “A very simple answer to the question ‘Who owns the learning?’ can be viewed in those classrooms where the students…contribute to the creation of content, seek meaning of relevant curriculum and express the desire to learn more.” Click here to read the full post.

Tappan Zee High School’s Girls Basketball team advanced to the New York State Regional Semifinals after winning the program’s first-ever Section 1 Class A championship last weekend. The team, led by Head Coach Riley Chevrier and Assistant Coach Kristen McLaughlin, will play Section 9 champs FDR-Hyde Park at 5PM on Wednesday, March 6, at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh.

Making school athletics history isn’t something team captains Fiona Mullen, Chrissy Lynch and Ashley Chaluisan take lightly. “We knew from the start this year that this was a special team,” said Fiona. “We have a deep bench. It’s not just our starters that other teams have to look out for.”

“It shows that all our hard work paid off,” added Chrissy.

It was a sentiment echoed by Coach Chevrier. “I’m really proud of them. They’ve worked for nearly four months to get here and it really is the best feeling.”

Tickets for Wednesday’s semifinals will be sold at the door: $7 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and children under age 12.

WHAT A NIGHT! A record 340 makers in grades K-12 presented their robotics, chemistry, virtual reality, art, computer science, biology, engineering, and math projects at last night’s 6th Annual SOCSD School Maker Faire! This much-anticipated event provides SOCSD students with the opportunity to share STEAM projects that they’ve worked on at school or at home with peers and our community. View photos on Facebook.

Special thanks to K-12 Instructional Technology Coach Marc Eckert, Director of Technology George Brady, TZHS Head Custodian Matt Dapolito and staff, SOCSD Facilities electricians Joe Prado and William Schoenleber, parent Vicki Caramante and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction for organizing this event. And thanks to students, parents, teachers, administrators and our Board of Education for their continued enthusiasm and support!

The South Orangetown Central School District will host its annual spring community blood drive for the New York Blood Center on Thursday, March 14, in honor of local veterans. The drive will be held in the Tappan Zee High School Rear Gym, 8:30am-8:30pm. Students*, faculty and community members ages 16 and older are invited to participate. Walk-ins are welcome, but donors may also sign-up online at www.nybloodcenter.org.

A celebration to honor veterans is scheduled for 5pm; veterans are invited to wear their uniforms or a hat representing the branch in which they served. Featured speakers include USMC Corporal Megan Leavey, Town Supervisor Chris Day, Rockland County Legislator Aney Paul and Rockland County Executive Ed Day.

*All students must present a signed parental consent form in order to donate. Forms may be picked up during lunch periods in the cafeteria or downloaded from the New York Blood Center site here.

This weekend, The Tappan Zee Players will present George M.!, a fun-for-the-whole-family musical about Broadway performer, lyricist, composer, director and producer George M. Cohan. The show features Cohan’s hit songs “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Give My Regards to Broadway,” and is set in the late 1800s through the late 1930s.

George M.! opens Friday, March 15, at Tappan Zee High School. Showtimes are 8:00pm on Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16, and 2:00pm on Sunday, March 17. Tickets for this all-ages show cost $8 for adults and $5 for students. Admission is free for senior citizens.

Sixteen Tappan Zee High School DECA members competed in the New York State DECA Career Conference in Rochester last week. For the fifth consecutive year, the chapter was awarded as the top contributor to the annual DECA State fundraiser. Funds raised this year will support Alzheimer’s research. In addition, the following members placed among the top 10 finalists for their categories:

• Aidan Donohue, Food Marketing
• Justin Lee and Jacob Greenberg, Innovation Plan
• Alex Gottlieb, Independent Business Plan
• Aswathi Nair and Kavitha Sriskanda, International Business Plan

DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. “DECA is a high school and collegiate student organization that prepares the next generation to be experienced, professionally responsible, academically prepared, and community-oriented leaders,” says TZHS DECA advisor Mark Bergling.

Congratulations to TZHS DECA on a great showing at States!

The South Orangetown Middle School Science Olympiad team medaled in three events at the Lower Hudson Valley Regional Competition at Scarsdale Middle School on March 2! In all, 36 teams from 22 schools across the area participated in the annual event.

Our medalists were:

• Matt T. and Ian G., 1st Place, Write it/Do It
• Matt T. and Alexis J., 8th Place, Road Scholar
• Matt T. and Roger N., 6th Place, Battery Buggy

“We are so proud of our students who dedicated their time and effort to Science Olympiad this year. Even those who couldn’t make it to the competition showed up every week to help build or create study materials for various events,” noted SOMS Science Olympiad advisor Samantha Levine. “Other students jumped into events the week before the competition to make sure every event was covered. This showed their true commitment to the team. We wish our eighth-graders good luck at the high school level and look forward to competing again next year.”

Congratulations to our Science Olympiad medalists, team and advisors Ms. Levine, Sara Nybro, Kerry Beckmann and Lou Chugranis!

Thank you to William O. Schaefer Elementary School kindergarten teacher Rossana Rega and her students Luca and Caroline for demonstrating how to use the tools in their classroom Calm Corner!

Luca likes to squeeze a multisensory rubber ball and focus on mindful, deep breaths as he expands and contracts a rainbow sphere. “The Calm Corner is a place where you can calm down when you feel angry or frustrated or sad or worried,” explained Caroline, who is partial to tilting the fluid- and glitter-filled tubes and watching the contents swirl around. “All these tools calm you down. It’s nice to have a Calm Corner.”

Ms. Rega says that she and teacher Jaimie Ehardt created the Calm Corner last year, but that she and teacher Paula Ferzola have spent more time discussing it with students this year. “I’ve noticed that they can verbalize their feelings much more effectively, because we’ve been talking about it more. Students choose to go to the Calm Corner on their own and may stay for a few minutes. It’s a great tool to help us get back on track. When they return from the Calm Corner, they are ready to learn.”

Second-graders are engaged in a persuasive writing problem-based learning challenge developed by Library Media Specialist Patty Eyer to liberate the library books at William O. Schaefer Elementary School! As part of their Teachers College Reading & Writing unit, students drafted letters to convince Principal Sheila Beglin and Assistant Principal Maggie White to open the storage container holding the library books while the library is under construction.

Not only do they have to persuade Ms. Beglin and Ms. White, but students also have to use their problem-solving skills to help the custodians unlock the containers! On Tuesday, students in teacher Lori Berube’s class were busy looking for clues with using maps and penlights to read invisible ink.

Learn more about persuasive writing by reading Ms. Eyer’s blog post.

Two South Orangetown Central School District students excelled in the March 13 Lower Hudson Valley New York History Day Competition and will advance to judging at the state competition in Cooperstown next month.

Tappan Zee High School senior Brian Curtis placed first in the Senior Division for “The Other Man: Peter Norman’s Never-ending Race,” a biographical website profiling the Australian sprinter who placed second in the 1968 Olympics and was ostracized for expressing solidarity with the Black Power protest on the podium. “I thought Norman’s story was astounding,” said Brian, who discovered the sprinter through a YouTube video. “He could have stayed quiet and gone home a national hero, but he chose to support the protest and it ended his career. It took special courage and bravery to make that stand.”

South Orangetown Middle School eighth-grader Matt Tobin placed second in the Junior Division for his historical paper, “The Triumph and Tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” “I wanted to write about something that I’d heard about but didn’t know a lot about,” Matt noted, adding that he learned that President Harry Truman relied heavily on the advice of his generals through declassified documents obtained through George Washington University.

The theme of this year’s National History Day competition is “Triumph and Tragedy in History.” Entries are evaluated on historical quality, relation to theme and clarity of presentation. Brian developed his website entry as his History Honor Society project; Matt researched and wrote his entry as a Challenge Lab project. “I enjoy academic competitions,” said Matt. “With academics, there’s no limit to how well you can do. You can always learn more as an individual and excel at competition–and that’s exciting.”

Congratulations to Brian and Matt–and good luck at States!

Great story in this week’s issue of the Rockland County Times about classroom redesigns at Tappan Zee High School! Reporter Barry Warner spoke with social studies teacher Beth Smith and sophomores Kaylei, Liam, Lucy and Noah about their experiences last week. Read the story here.

South Orangetown Middle School parents dove into augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for the annual SOMS PTA Parent Tech Night on March 12. The event, led by Interim Principal Dr. Chad Corey and Interim Assistant Principal Joe Onativia, provided parents with a hands-on, guided tour of the tech tools their children are using to learn across a variety of subject areas. View the presentation here.

Equipped with Google Cardboard viewers and iPads, parents explored mummies and artifacts with the BBC Civilisations app used by sixth-grade social studies teachers. They also experimented with the new AR Sandbox (on loan from Dr. Steve Cohn’s science classroom at TZHS), observing contour lines and other effects created by moving sand and motioning to sensors.

Six Tappan Zee High School students, along with Social Studies Team Leader Scott Silver and teacher Martin Patmos, attended the 7th Annual John T. and Mary A. Grant Rockland County High School History Conference at St. Thomas Aquinas College on March 12. Students from area high schools present original local history research at the day-long event, which is sponsored by the Historical Society of Rockland County.

This year’s theme focused on the impact of immigration on Rockland County. The TZHS team interviewed Italian, Korean and German immigrants about their experience coming to the U.S. Senior Zoe B. noted that she appreciated hearing different perspectives from students from other high schools. Jacob G., a junior, echoed the sentiment and was moved by two students who spoke about their own immigration to the U.S. “They expressed that the American Dream is very much alive for them and they have a lot of hope.”

The TZHS students were surprised to discover how much ethnic, cultural and religious diversity exists in the county, and even our school district community. “The county is becoming more and more diverse,” said junior Sophia P. “We’re looking closer and seeing all the different churches, restaurants and businesses around us.”

“After attending for the last seven years, I continue to be exposed to surprising revelations and historical details that turn up everywhere around us on a daily basis. I find it is so valuable for the students to be exposed to these accounts and then to become the vehicles through which the history stays alive,” said Mr. Silver.

Congratulations to the TZHS conference participants on their presentation: sophomores Parker S. and Julia W., juniors Sophia P. and Jacob G, and seniors Quinn G. and Zoe B.

For forty minutes on Tuesday, physical education teacher Sue O’Rourke led a mindfulness session with fifth-graders in teacher Jaime Sainz’s class. Students engaged in a series of activities–from balancing a peacock feather on their bodies to sun salutations to separating dry rice and beans with their eyes closed–to practice focusing their attention and developing strength and dexterity, with special attention to using both sides of their body. “You need to use your non-dominant hand,” she advised. “It’s important for whatever you do, if you’re an athlete or an artist, or a musician, you need to to use your whole body.”

The classroom-based mindfulness sessions are new this year and offered once a day. Teachers “book” Ms. O’Rourke to work with their students. “These strategies help students self-regulate in order to learn the ability to manage their emotions and behaviors, and helps to build their self-esteem. This confidence learned in yoga can then be carried into the real world,” she said. “They are things that everyone can do. Each strategy can be modified so that there are lots of ways to be successful.”

Assistant Principal Rob Schliessman noted that this work is part of a broader effort at CLE. “The mindfulness experiences that Coach O’Rourke is bringing to classrooms supports the social, emotional, mental and physical health that all students and adults need to be successful in their everyday lives. Sue has visited almost every classroom at CLE to share mindfulness games and activities that the students can try at home and that teachers can continue to use in their classrooms. Ask your child to share with you at home. This work continues to support the Social Emotional Learning that we teach at Cottage Lane,” he explained.

“Taking the time out of the instructional day for mindfulness activities helps students build awareness of their emotions, as well as continue to build on their emotional health,” said Ms. Sainz. “The children are exposed to controlled breathing exercises, yoga poses, concentration activities that all can be applied inside and outside the classroom. These mindful experiences can positively impact their self awareness, coping skills, memory and attention to a task among many other benefits. I see it as a crucial part of their school day that can have numerous positive effects as they continue to develop throughout their lives.”

The Board of Education recognized South Orangetown Middle School National Geographic School GeoBee winners sixth-grader Nuala M. (1st Place), eighth-grader Hunter L. (2nd Place) and seventh-grader Oisin B. (3rd Place) at tonight’s board meeting.

“We like to start our meetings with student recognition because it centers us and refocuses our attention on what matters most,” said Dr. Pritchard. “Thank you for helping us remember why we do this work. We are very proud of you.”

Thank you to all who turned out for our March 14 community blood drive, and to those who joined Superintendent Dr. Robert Pritchard, Rockland County Executive Ed Day, Rockland County Legislator Aney Paul, Town of Orangetown Supervisor Chris Day and US Marine Corps veteran Megan Leavey for a celebration honoring our veterans.

“My blood type is O Positive,” noted Ms. Leavey. “When we join the military, we wear our blood type when we deploy. I remember writing it on my Kevlar helmet and on my sleeve because in an emergency, every minute counts…To those who may be nervous or scared to donate blood, what I’ll say is, ‘You’ll live.’ And if you do give, someone else will live, too. As human beings, we can be a little more selfless.”

Dr. Pritchard, a West Point graduate and Army veteran, was honored with citations from both NYS Assemblywoman Ellen C. Jaffee and Supervisor Day, and presented with a plaque by the Tappan Zee High School Blood Drive team.

I recently had the opportunity to have lunch prepared by some of our Tappan Zee High School students at the Rockland County BOCES Culinary Arts Program.  While I was eating my lunch, I had the impulse to give this meal a five-star review on Yelp.  However, I had to continually remind myself that this was a Career and Technical Education program and not an exclusive restaurant listed on Yelp.  I started with a mixed green salad with marinated cherry tomatoes and had a choice of two entrees.  The entree I selected was a delicious, sauteed breast of chicken with artichoke hearts and roasted peppers, grilled baby carrots and roasted potatoes.  For dessert, I had deconstructed raspberry cheesecake.  The meal was amazing and reflected the culinary talents and personal dedication of the students.  After lunch, I had the opportunity to meet with our Tappan Zee High School students enrolled in CTEC culinary arts training at Rockland BOCES (pictured below): Louis Rodriguez, grade 12; Tatiana Guzman, grade 11; and Elizabeth Caramante, grade 12… Continue reading Dr. Pritchard’s post.