The student-run newspaper of Northwood School in Lake Placid.
Alex van Schalkwyk ’19 at school meeting.
Last Wednesday, Alex Van Schalkwyk talked about resilience. He related his topic to his personal life and how being resilient helped him through his hard times. Van Schalkwyk’s talk was part of “Ask Me Anything,” Northwood’s weekly speaker series for students and faculty, presented Mr. Martinez and the Office of Multicultural Affairs each Wednesday. This year’s theme is “Gaining Perspective.” [Read more…]
Twent-six members of the Northwood ski team traveled to Austria for a pre-season training camp. Since October 13th, the ski team has been skiing at the Stubai Glacier. The conditions have not been optimal for the team but have made the skiers more skilled on icy conditions, which will serve them well during the Eastern race season. [Read more…]
On Wednesday, October 10, Senior Chris Athanasiadis participated in the Northwood Speaker Series to talk about his experience of learning to stay true to himself. In his speech, Chris emphasized three words: perseverance, purpose, and humility. Each of these words comes from different areas of his life. [Read more…]
Head Soccer Coach Jon Moodey (Photo: Sarah Bennett ’19).
I was motivated to come to Northwood by the opportunity to build a high-level soccer program in a boarding school environment that supports elite athletes and rigorous academics. I like Northwood because it is a small community. The teachers, coaches, and players work closely together, and that is important for building a strong culture within a soccer program. Academics are important to me, obviously. The location is gorgeous. I love the mountains and the snow. We have the new indoor turf, so it will all fit nicely. Before Northwood, I worked with Mr. Maher at Berkshire for about 10 years.
As told to Sarah Bennett ’19
At school meeting on Wednesday, October 3, Mr. Don Mellor ’71, talked about pessimism. Mellor’s talk was part of “Ask Me Anything,” Northwood’s weekly speaker series for students and faculty, presented Mr. Martinez and the Office of Multicultural Affairs each Wednesday. This year’s theme is “Gaining Perspective. The Mirror staff writer Sarah Bennett ‘19 sat down with Mellor to discuss his talk and how it came about.
Mr. Don Mellor at his school meeting talk. (Photo: Ms. Christine Ashe)
During school meeting on October 26, Adelia and Angelia Castillo took part in the year-long series of speeches organized by Mr. Kelvin Martinez, the Dean of Multicultural Affairs, and Ms. Mavis Agnew, the Director of Residence Life. [Read more…]
School psychologist Ms. Tara Wright (Photo: Sarah Bennett ’19)
Math teacher Mr. David Vitale is leaving Northwood to pursue graduate school. Staff writer Sarah Bennett ‘19 sat down with Vitale for this exit interview.
Why are you leaving Northwood?
I am leaving to go back to school, I’m starting a masters program in logic at Carnegie Mellon University in August.
What will you miss about Northwood?
I’m definitely going to miss teaching and coaching. I think I’ve really grown a lot as a teacher and coach in the last five years, and I’m going to miss growing more. It’s what I enjoy doing and I’ll miss that. I’ll also miss the people I work with and the people here in general.
What do you plan on doing after grad school?
Probably keep teaching. I don’t know if after two years I’ll want to stay in school and pursue a more advanced degree or whether I’ll want to get back to teaching, but I think that this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life. I think I’m a teacher.
What’s are some of your favorite Northwood memories?
Our last game of the season, last year on the prep team, we won four to nothing against OHA, a pretty good team, and Drew Goldberg who was a senior had a shootout and we had four different seniors score. Some of those players I had coached for four years, it was pretty special for that season to end that way. Other great memories would be just getting off topic talking about math in class and playing chess in the living room.
Dear Mr. Vitale,
I have had many teachers. Some are better than others. Some are nicer than others.Some failed me. You stand out among them all. You are the first teacher that challenged me not only in the classroom but outside of the classroom, as my hockey coach too. I was always learning from you, whether it was some wild math theory or a simple break-out, every day I could count on you for a learning experience. When I was zoning out in math class, you could draw me back in by relating the topic to some aspect of my life. Your math class never ceased to amaze me, whether it was a conspiracy theory talk on a lazy Friday or walking in to class on the last day of school and learning Mr. David Vitale has a girlfriend. I would like to thank you for being a great hockey coach and math teacher, and for helping make my first year at Northwood one to remember. Good luck next year in graduate school. Hopefully your grades will be better than mine.
Thank You,
Cisco DelliQuadri ‘20
Sarah Bennett is a junior at Northwood and is one of the top North American ski racers in her age group. In this essay, she describes the challenges ski racers face to stay on top of their school work during the ski season.
When it comes to ski racers, especially on the FIS level, missing school is common. Missing five school days in a week can be pretty normal during the season. Compared to any other sport offered at the school, skiing is the most time-consuming. Even though Northwood is accommodating for students to be able to miss some school, the busy ski racing schedule makes it very difficult to catch up on all the assignments that I miss, especially after being absent for a couple weeks.
On an average race day, inspection starts at 9am and the race usually goes until 2pm. If the race occurred at the end of a race series, nets will have to be taken down the hill, which could take up to an hour. When I arrive back at the hotel, I have to prep my skis for the following races. With this kind of schedule, it is very hard to fit in any type of work.
Since mountains are usually not close to each other and far from Lake Placid, I have a lot of time on the road, which means missing more school to travel. Some camps and races involve taking a plane and traveling to places in different time zones, which can make communicating with teachers difficult.
Northwood’s traditional academic schedule involves having all students take every class every day, and it’s challenging to have to focus on every class every day. If we had a block schedule, with longer classes that don’t meet every day, it would be easier to catch up on work by having to focus on fewer classes each day. Off periods would also be longer, allowing more time to meet with teachers.
Another helpful solution would be for teachers who take a lot of notes on the board, to use an interactive SMART Board, which allows everything written on the board to be saved and shared. Sure, a student who attended class can send the traveling student the notes by taking pictures of their notebook pages, but the notes are often incomplete or inaccurate, and the photo can be difficult to read. I have found that most of the best note-takers in my classes are involved in other sports, so their notes are missing pages from the days they missed. Having a SMART Board in a classroom where teachers take lots of notes on the board would mean that the teachers could send all of the notes taken during class, directly to the student. Mr. Ben Runyon was my geometry teacher, and he uses a SMART Board, which was very helpful. Having his class notes while I was away from school made it much easier to understand the concepts. I wasn’t the same as being in class, but it was close.
Although Northwood is a school where teachers are accommodating for students who miss school for their sport, I think the suggestions I made here could make the school even more welcoming to elite student-athletes. The number of students who miss school often because of their sport or co-curricular activity will only increase at Northwood. The school has to adapt to these changes and use technology to facilitate the student’s ability to learn while not being in class.
Over the weekend, Beth fisher competed in the USSA Eastern Finals at Gore Mountain. The first race was a Super G and her starting position was 13th. She was out by .19 seconds after the first interval, but managed to find some time at the end of the course and win by half a second. [Read more…]
