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Sachem Raises Thousands to Support St. Baldrick’s

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The Sachem Central School District is helping the fight against pediatric cancer by supporting the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Several school buildings came together for head-shaving events to raise funds for childhood cancer research, as well as awareness.

Seneca Middle School held its St. Baldrick’s event on March 18. Fourteen students and one teacher volunteered to shave their heads. The building raised nearly $14,300 in their efforts.

At Waverly Elementary School, six students and five adults including parents, Principal Kevin Tougher and school custodian Mr. Nick, shaved their heads during the building’s annual St. Baldrick’s event on March 22. Since 2015, Waverly students and staff have raised nearly $250,000 for the foundation. This year, the building raised more than $5,000 and honored Waverly’s own fifth grader, Justin Olsen. Olsen was diagnosed with a pediatric cancer in 2019 and had his final treatment in May 2021. He is doing incredibly well and was happy to participate in this year’s event.

Sagamore Middle School had nine “shavees” and raised over $10,000. Additionally, the building held a ceremony to honor the shavees and volunteers from all three Sachem Middle Schools. Samoset Middle School is looking forward to its event in April and has already raised over $14,000 with two fundraising weeks still to go.

Click here to view the Sagamore photo slideshow.

Click here to view the Seneca photo slideshow.

Click here to view the Waverly photo slideshow.

 

Date Added: 3/28/2024

Library Leaders Test VR Equipment

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Ms. Creedon's library leaders at Seneca Middle School are helping evaluate technological tools. Students used virtual reality equipment to determine whether the resource was simple to use, set up and access for their peers. They used the VR headsets to view ancient civilizations and different ecosystems.

The students enjoyed the experience but were critical when evaluating the technology. They determined there needed to be improvements to the equipment and software before it could be used for classroom instruction.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Date Added: 3/26/2024

Seneca Sixth Graders Inspired by Black History Month Activity

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Sixth graders at Seneca Middle School learned about Elizabeth Jennings and her fight for equal access on public transportation in New York City as part of the building’s Black History Month activities. Students participated in a three-part program – a read aloud of “Lizzie Demands a Seat!: Elizabeth Jennings Fights for Streetcar Rights,” a virtual visit with the Long Island Museum to examine its 1885 streetcar and understand its importance, and a virtual author visit with Beth Anderson who shared her writing process and research that went into creating the book.

Through this program, sixth graders learned about Jennings’ path of inspiration. They discussed specific examples of what it means to inspire others and compared Jennings to other influential figures in American history. Students were then introduced to the idea of “following in someone’s footsteps,” and wrote down their own examples of inspirations in their lives.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Date Added: 3/5/2024

Senecon Celebrates Arts and Literacy

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Seneca Middle School held its annual Senecon event on Feb. 16, inviting the seventh grade class to celebrate literacy, the arts and hands-on learning. Students connected with artists, storytellers, authors, illustrators and musicians through interactive sessions. They were encouraged to dress up as movie, comic book, video game or television show characters.

Several of the workshops were virtual, including origami, graffiti art and music technology. However, students also experienced two sessions in person. Seneca welcomed Christopher Agostino to Senecon for a storytelling event. Agostino called student volunteers on the stage to have their faces painted as he told a story. He engaged the audience in several folktales while illustrating them through face paint.

Jester Jim was the second in-person performance for Senecon. He began his session by exploring beatboxing and different sounds. Students were eager to help him create songs. Jester Jim then performed juggling and balancing acts while calling volunteers onto stage.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Date Added: 2/22/2024

Project Kindness

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Sixth graders at our middle schools were visited by high school students on Feb. 1 to collaborate on lessons of kindness and friendship. Peer educators and students in the teens as teachers courses pushed into sixth grade classes for interactive activities focused on teamwork and shared decision-making. Middle school and high school students alike were excited to make conversation and build new friendships.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Date Added: 2/5/2024