Harwich Elementary School

New Staff

Chris Roberts will be music teacher this year. He is a native of Coedpoeth, North Wales. He has been involved in vocal and instrumental music since the age of seven, singing in Church as well as in local “eisteddfodau” (music competitions). He began teaching music in 1978 in Wrexham, North Wales. He has been a music teacher on Cape Cod since 1993. He previously taught at Chatham Elementary School.

Katie Carey will be teaching Spanish. She has lived on the Cape for most of her life, with a few years spent living in Spain and in the Boston area. While in Spain she studied at the Universidad de Zaragoza. She began teaching Spanish in 1999. She lives in Harwich with her husband and their three children.

Chatham Elementary School

New Staff

Suzanne Horne, a retired CES speech and language teacher, is now an administrative assistant in the front office. Barbara O'Connor is transferring to CES from Harwich Elementary School. She will be the new math/reading interventionist. Timothy Ressler is also transferring to CES from HES. He will be the full year music unified arts teacher and will will also conduct our band and chorus. Ms. Perry/Ambrosini comes to CES as a change of career educator, and she will be our new fourth grade classroom teacher. Ms. Mullins has been appointed as CES’ new speech and language pathologist. Kathryn Linnell has joined the CES instructional assistant staff. She has an extensive teaching background with 20 years experience at Cape Cod districts as a special education and behavioral support teacher. Ms. Whitney joins the unified arts teaching team as our new library media teacher.

Curriculum Night

The school will hold its annual curriculum night on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Grades pre K-2 will have classroom presentations (homeroom classrooms) from 5:30 to 6:15; from 6:15 to 6:30 will be an all-community presentation of the schoolwide improvement plan in the gymnasium; from 6:30 to 7 will be unified arts classroom visits (library, computer lab, music/Spanish room, art room, gymnasium, counseling offices, specialist classrooms, and nurse) along with community partnerships in the cafeteria; and 7 to 7:45 grades 3-4 classroom presentation.

Babysitting will be provided by the MRHS National Honor Society.

Monomoy Regional High School

New Guidance Counselor

Sean Burke, Harwich resident and active community member, is joining the guidance department beginning Oct. 11. He comes to MRHS after spending 11 years at Bourne High School. He has two children in the Monomoy district and is excited to work in his home town with our students and families. Mr. Burke will be working with students whose last name begins with G through N.

Turtle Town!

For the past two weeks, students in Ms. Picariello's marine science class have been studying the natural history of a local species, the diamondback terrapin. They were fortunate to have the opportunity for some hands-on data collection when 11 hatchling turtles visited the classroom for a day. Students worked in groups to carefully weigh and measure each turtle, along with making addition observations on their behavior and appearance. All of our data was recorded and will be shared with Dr. Barbara Brennessel, a Wheaton College professor who studies populations of terrapins on Cape Cod, who will be in the classroom next week to talk more about her research.

Credit for Life Fair Oct. 13

The Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank and Monomoy Regional High School are partnering to sponsor a Credit for Life Fair. The Credit for Life Fair will provide seniors with a unique opportunity to learn how to make good financial decisions after high school. The fair is based on a national model and has won numerous awards. In addition to the students, approximately sixty individuals from the business community come together as volunteers to provide mentoring.

The Credit for Life Fair is an interactive simulation that requires students to select a career option and then practice managing their personal budgets based upon the projected monthly income for their job choice. Students will have to visit booths staffed by community volunteer as they make financial decisions about what they want, what they need and what they can afford. CC5 will provide the necessary materials to help the students complete their budget worksheets. Many of the booth volunteers also bring props on the day of the fair to help the students visualize that for which they are budgeting.

Parent and community volunteers are needed. The time commitment on Oct. 13 is any time from 8 to 10:15 a.m. An orientation meeting for all volunteers will be held on Sept. 28 from 3 to 4 p.m. in the MRHS library to highlight what happens at a booth during the fair. For information or to volunteer, contact Dave Alexander at dalexander@monomoy.edu.

The fair ends with a catered lunch where students, teachers and volunteers can discuss the lessons learned during the day.

Best Buddies Leadership Conference

Student Perspective by Mia Robinson

This is the best buddies leadership conference! It took place in Indiana this summer on July 22 until the 24. On Friday night, it was the opening ceremony. The ceremony was a big party to get everyone excited for the weekend and showcase what was in store. Another activity that took place was the friendship walk. It was a big walk that was dedicated to all of the friendship that were made and are being made. During the trip we stayed in the dorms at the Indiana University in Bloomington. The weather was about 98 degrees all weekend. For each activity we had to walk to different parts of the campus. The campus was huge so we were walking about five to six miles a day. I have never had a better experience in my life. This conference opened my eyes and made me want to get our school more involved in our Best Buddies program. There is a picture of me and a girl and her name is Lisa Smith. She is a buddy that was a big part in the conference. She taught herself sign language and performed sign language when a song was being sung for those who couldn't hear it. She was the sweetest girl ever and was so happy when I asked her if I could get a picture with her