FHUHS Administration

Principal’s Newsletter

Before vacation I had the pleasure of inviting myself to Mrs. Trish Doran’s Honors American Literature class. The students had been working on debates using characters from The Scarlett Letter. It was informative and interesting to watch each student having to think on his/her feet while trying to remain in character. The results of The Scarlet Letter debate are:

Period 2: Pearl’s group, comprised of Peter Read, Joel Hernandez, Laura Belden, and Keri Johnson won the case. A close “second” goes to Roger’s group, comprised of Casey Koenig, Tyler Ducziemenski, and Rich Coltey.

Period 6: The jury was in favor of Hester, whose team was: Lindsy Danforth, Jenna Jakubowski, and Amy Sessock.

Mrs. Doran would like to thank all of her students who worked hard to make this project memorable and enjoyable!

John Durfee and Forest Immel are participating in the First Robotics Competition. This event is organized by US First Robotics and challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in competitions. The local group that John and Forest participate in is sponsored by the Rutland Area Robotics and will be able to receive technical support from GE in Rutland. Additionally, if successful, the group will have the opportunity to go to Georgia for a national competition. More information on the competition can be found at http://www.usfirst.org.

Mr. Eric Snay wanted to share the news that we are ready to rollout a new, wireless mobile lab. Mr Snay and the Tech staff started this project over the summer, doing site survey, and installing ceiling mounted wireless access points. The wireless network is secured through stream-cyphering encryption. The mobile lab consists of 16 wireless-enabled, Windows laptops running the latest applications and connecting to the High School local area network. The lab will be housed in a rolling cart designed especially for this purpose. Teachers will use our web-based sign-out database to reserve the mobile lab. Students will be able to use the computers for online research, writing papers and other documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or even exploring the world of GIS. The project was funded entirely through the Microsoft settlement.

The Child Development Class currently is hosting three to five year olds in a preschool. The preschool runs eight to ten sessions during the second half of each semester from 11:15 to 12:30. Students design the curriculum and create the teaching materials. During the week of December 17 students celebrated Hanukkah and a Christmas party. We currently have openings for our spring semester.

The Child Development, Child Psychology and Family Issues Class students participate in a practicum at the Fair Haven Essential Early Education Program. Each student spends two half days at the preschool at the Fair Haven Grade School. The relationship between the Family and Consumer Science and EEE programs has been on going since the 1970’s. EEE receives extra help where they need it. Students working directly with the children increase their knowledge of children and observe services available for preschool children in our community.
 The winter edition of VARSITY MAGAZINE came out last week, and as usual, both the boy’s and girl’s indoor track teams are near the front of the pack. On the girl’s side, the Dave Heitkamp led Slaters have never finished lower than 2nd place during the indoor season, and this year should be no different. With Ashley Brown, perhaps the top female athlete in all of Vermont leading the way, the Slaters are taking aim at defending champion Essex. An interesting side note of the article is that it was written by 2007 Slater graduate Zach Parker, who is a freshman at UVM. Zach’s article covered the indoor track scene for all of Vermont. VARSITY MAGAZINE covers the sports landscape for Vermont and New Hampshire high school athletics, and has great feature stories and spectacular photographs of all the sports. Our Slater athletes always seem to find there way into each issue, and this edition is no exception. Go to www.varsityNE.com to get your subscription. Rumor is the February edition will include the Slater boy’s basketball program.

Happy New Year to all,

Brett C. Blanchard, Fair Haven Union High School Principal