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So the next piece we want to run through is just the supports for our students when they arrive at the high school. Uh I know Dr. Reed has has done some some work this year with uh with the help of of Mrs. Broadway and Mrs. Pel and Mr. Tartarelli to to really uh engage teachers in providing learning lab support where students can drop in and get support on executive functioning skills. Uh we have writing lab support, math lab, science, science lab, structured study hall. All of these supports are available to all students to drop in for for some directed assistance or if students have an area of difficulty, we can actually assign that into their schedule. All of our nth graders take a healthy balance course that blends instruction in mindfulness and in executive functioning. So they really do develop a balance between social and emotional learning skills, self-efficacy, self-direction, positive decision making, and strong academic skills.
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We also have a wonderful program that's called Link Crew. And I'm going to ask Mrs. Pel to talk a bit about that. Sure. Just um tonight's really the kickoff to the freshman orientation program. So this this is always an exciting night because students really start the eighth graders really start thinking about and planning for um the the high school the transition to the high school. So there's tonight and then in the spring usually um in early April um students if they're at DD they're coming over by teams and other student other eighth graders are are welcome to set up appointments to come in. There's usually a panel discussion in front of our group of student leaders and they get to tour the building with those student leaders. a combination of our peer advocates and um link crew members. Then in the summer um pro about a week before school starts tenatively on August 25th, we have a day that is a full freshman orientation day and it's a program to get acclimated to the building.
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Um it's run by our link crew leaders which again is our student leadership group and um they start to hear about the expectations and the culture here at Cheshire High School. They get to tour again the building, get another tour of the building, a little bit more in-depth tour, um, learn about the important spaces, learn about kind of the lunch procedures and and other procedures. They get to visit their advisory classrooms and meet those students in their advisories. Um, and they just go through some logistical things and um, such as getting another copy of their schedule. Um sometimes in in a typical year they're picking up their Chromebooks again, um locker locks, things that of of that nature. Um this year we did run an orientation program in our in our hybrid model. We had a couple virtual meetings with um freshmen and the link crew leaders and then again the first day in the building that was their orientation day.
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Um so you can look for information on that coming towards the end of um the end of the school year and over the summer. And we are hoping that this will be in person next year. That is the goal that all of us are crossing our fingers for. And last but not least, we do provide some mentorship support to students as well. And that is scheduled. A person in the building becomes their mentor. I know Mr. Trafone is a is a is a mentor. Um, a number of us are. And it's a it's a wonderful way to connect uh 9th graders to another adult in the building aside from their advisory person, their advisory teacher. Also, not to be underestimated, our school counselors. Uh, our school counseling staff are always available to support struggling learners and also through our special education department and just also to support all students.
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We have uh three school psychologists and two social workers uh who can support our our students. So, we'll just do one last little piece of just sort of general information about the high school program. Mr. Trafone and Mr. Tarter, can you talk a little bit about extracurriculars? Certainly. Um I'll start with the clubs. We strongly encourage our students to get involved in some kind of club or extracurricular activities. And we have plenty of them. By last count, I think we had 104 clubs total. And as you can see on this list, um under the athletic teams, we have service organizations. We have uh clubs that range from academic area clubs like math league for example all the way up to uh to music clubs to theater clubs, print um and publications and also sports and game clubs like Ultimate Frisbee. Uh there's something for everybody.
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I would say that 100% sure. If your child has an interest or a passion, uh, very, very likely there's a club that will fit for him or her. Um, if you'd like to know more about clubs, you can go to our CHS homepage and if you drop down the academics list at the bottom, there's a link for an extracurricular clubs website. And from there, you can click either on an interest form on a club that you would like to join and the adviser will get an email. So that way they can reach out and tell the student a little bit more on how to how to connect. Or you can go to our CHS student and family um handbook. And at the end of that, the last few pages is a very thorough description of all of our clubs, what they do, the meeting times, the um advisors, and the places where they meet.
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Uh currently, all of our clubs are still running. Uh most of them are running right now and they are virtual but we do all kinds of events that are um again good for the kids to get involved in and also good for the community too. They are usually supportive and um you know and and a good opportunity for everyone. Just to uh piggyback on that with Mr. Tartarelli, we do have 29 uh athletic teams that we offer. Uh we we do also offer nine freshman dedicated teams. Uh so any freshman that does come and try out for those teams uh we usually keep every freshman that we can to give them that experience uh allow them to grow with our athletic programs. So you can go to the uh Cheshure High School website under athletics. If you want to click under that, you can see what sports are offered during the se in what season they are offered.
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Uh any questions that you may have with athletics, by all means, please contact the athletic department at the high school. And Mr. Traffon, I did get one question from from uh from our our questionnaire and it was will girls ice hockey be considered a varsity sport in Cheshire? Yes, it is. It's part of our athletic program here. It's part of our athletic uh varsity program. And I believe in the second part of that there there was a question on whether or not you can letter in that sport. And yes, you can. Uh as long as that athlete meets the requirements of lettering that they're in good standing with with the team, they finish obviously finish the season and whatever the coach uh recommends for lettering on that team. Usually it's a percentage of games that they're played in. Thank you so much. Thank you all of you for for for sharing some of the introductory information.
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And now uh we are welcoming and you've seen some some folks join our meeting as we've been chatting uh our humanities teachers uh actually department leaders are with us uh our our department head our English department head music social studies theater and world language and so uh we we took a look at the questions that came through and we thought we would begin by having each of the department leaders just introduce themselves so you could put a face to a name and then um I'll I'll ask some questions and they can share uh some information. What I will do on my end is I can I can pull up uh the the course sequence that they shared with you in this letter. And before we go further just just a little logistics parents in the letter that you received and here is a copy of it.
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If you scroll to the bottom and if you get seasick don't look as I scroll uh there is a drop in with department leaders to ask questions access this link. If you access this link in your letter, you'll see a link to each department leaders Google meet. So after our discussions and if there's time within each session, uh we can pause this live stream and you can get on a meet with a with an individual department head to ask a more a question related specifically to your own to your own child. So, if uh I I would like to begin with Mr. Costro if you could say hello and believe he's on. And I see Mr. Wilder. Pardon me, I was muted. Um hi everyone. My name is I'm Joe Casardo. I'm the art department leader here at Chester High School. Um thank you for having us tonight.
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Thank you for being part of this process. It's it's uh it's really nice to be involved um with everybody here and and move forward and show you what we offer for the communities. Thank you. And Mr. Wilderman. Uh hi, I'm uh Ian Wilderman. I'm the English department chair at the high school.
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Um and then I can also address any questions uh pertaining to theater. And Mr. Kuner. Good evening everyone. I'm John Keer, music department chairman. I'm happy to uh address any questions about the music program, including our ensembles and our general music classes. Thank you.
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Thank Thank you, Mr. Galvin. Good evening, everybody. Uh my name is Tim Galvin. I am the department chair for social studies and uh hope to answer any questions that you might have. And last but not least, world language. Mr. Bronco. Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Arua Bron. from the world language department chair. Welcome to our meeting tonight. Thank you. And I also believe I have Mrs. Wellspeak on our meet who is our library media specialist.
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Hi, good evening everyone. I'm Ann Wellspeak. I'm the library media specialist and in addition to uh being the manager of the books, I also will assist your student with their Chromebook when they get to the high school and so much more which we will get to in a minute. So, uh, let's start with Mr. Wilderman. If you could just tell us I we know that students need four years of English to graduate. What's the typical path, uh, for for a ninth grader and what are the options over their four years? And would you like me to put the English course sequence up? Sure. Yeah, if you want to pull that up. All right. Um, as Dr. Gab mentioned, uh, you need four four years, four credits of English at the high school. Um and so the progression we hear just kind of shows that that vertical alignment and the progression over those four years.
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The the first year grade uh grade nine is world literature one um literature from really it is pretty much anywhere around the world. More some classics in world literature one um with a real focus on on comprehension and citing the text and identifying uh themes and looking at analysis. Um that's the kind of focus for that year. The second year, grade 10, um goes to world literature 2. Um as the name suggests, also world also literature from around the world. Um a little more contemporary, some classics there too, but a little more contemporary than world at one. And that focus shifts a little bit more from just kind of the comprehension and identification um to focusing on on theme and message. Uh grade 11 is the first time that students have a choice between continuing that progression to American literature. Uh there's also the AP language and composition uh option and grade 11 that focus shifts a little bit towards the author uh and then the craft and and purpose of writing.
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And then in grade 12 uh students have even more choice um and kind of the focus depends on the choice they make. Uh senior literature as you can see continues that traditional progression and probably has the broadest um in terms of curriculum and content. And then there's two other fullyear choices with AP literature or British literature. And then there's also halfyear courses that can be taken in conjunction uh to form that final credit. And those each are a different kind of area of special specialty. Uh journalism, film, creative writing and speech. So the the amount of choice student has students have increases as the as those four years go on. I have two quick questions for you. Sure. One is what's a typical book that a nth grade student might read? And the other one is can you explain when it says AP and then Yukon?
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What does that mean? Does it mean the course taught at Yukon? Is it is it not seen as an AP course? If you could explain that for our parents. Sure. Uh the first question um typical book there's not the books the curriculum is built around the skills and so teachers have a pool of books in the curriculum to pull from. Um, so there's not a set exact pattern of books. Um, all teachers don't teach the same exact ones, but the ones that are most typically used are, uh, To Kill a Mockingbird, uh, Lord of the Flies, and then all teachers do freshman year, one Romeo, uh, one Shakespeare play, either Romeo and Juliet or Midsummer Night's Dream. Um, for the second question, so the AP or the AP classes, um, you know, it's still taken like a normal course at the high school. Um, but then most students in that class will enroll to take the AP exam in May for that course.
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Um, and then in order to earn college credit, you have to score a three or higher on that AP exam. Uh, the ECE courses, the early early college experience are offered through Yukon, but they're taught at the high school. Um it's student teachers who have been certified through Yukon to teach the courses professional development and workshops through Yukon to maintain that certification. Um and so they're sort of technically teaching the the Yukon course. And so while it's taught at the high school, students are actually getting Yukon credit uh a Yukon transcript. Um there's not an exam like there is with AP. The grade they get in the course is actually the grade they'll get on a on a Yukon transcript. And the great thing about both advanced placement AP or Yukon credit is they're all they they they do uh get they're accepted at colleges.
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The college board uh the scores on an AP exam range from three to five for scores that are typically accepted at universities and colleges. Uh but most colleges accept the Yukon transcript because it is an accredited nationally ranked and known university. Um if we could now ask Miss I actually but I did want to say one thing. I was remiss and I did not introduce Mrs. Baro who was our d our department head for special education and support services. Can you say hello? Sorry, I was just going to wave hello. I didn't want it um interrupt. But um I look forward to working with all of your children. I'm also the uh one of the link crew um coordinators. So, I'll be heavily involved in freshman orientation and um we're really happy to to have your child with us. So, we look forward to um working with you all.
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Thank you. I apologize. Mr. Galvin, you're you're next up in the line of questions here. Uh what social studies courses do incoming ninth graders take and what are the required courses and elective options? And would you like me to put your course sequence up? Yeah, sure. We can put the the organizer up there. Um, as you as you take a look at the course sequence, you'll notice we have our department mission statement up at the top. Um, first and foremost, our emphasis is to graduate students who are informed and engaged citizens. Um, and to that and we're focused on skill development. So, not just the delivery of content, but um, our department places a heavy emphasis on skill development, critical thinking, writing, research, um, etc. So that's kind of uh the foundation for everything we do. Freshman year, all students are enrolled in modern world history.
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