During the last week of school in 2017 at ORRHS, students had many events that allowed them to explore and enjoy the festive season.
Teachers used the celebratory spirit to have more interactive events in their classes relating to subjects currently being studied by students.
For instance, the freshman students in Michael Beson’s English classes had a “Banquet of the Greek Gods,” where students dressed up and brought in food relating to their assigned Greek god. This went along with the ninth-grade assigned book of The Odyssey that his classes were reading and allowed students to better understand the numerous and powerful Olympiad.
The combined French class under Diane Palombo used the opportunity to have a small party where students brought in food and learned to make crepes, an iconic French food.
Back in the English Department, Merrideth Wickman’s AP Literature classes held a “Literary Character Secret Santa,” where students assumed their favorite book character’s identity, and another classmate was tasked with getting a present for their character.
For example, a student who chose to be Lady Macbeth received soap to help wash her hands of her guilt, and another who was Huckleberry Finn got a pool noodle from their classmate, just in case Huck Finn’s raft ever fell apart again on the Mississippi River.
Latin teacher Judy Pretat’s classes participated in a school-wide event that brought use of the Latin language into the holiday season through caroling. With a xylophone, tambourine, plastic nose flutes, and Pretat’s jovial ukulele accompaniment, the Latin students visited classes all over the school and sang popular Christmas carols to their peers, but with Latin lyrics instead of the English words. Instead of “jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,” the hallways echoed with the melody of “tinniat, tinniat, tintinnabulum!”
“I love surprising the classes and letting kids and staff take a break and listen to some classic carols before the holidays,” said Latin student Hannah Powers, who was Latin caroling for her third year.
Students in the high school’s Music Department also took on their own caroling as they made their annual trip to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market to sing for holiday shoppers out and about in Boston. Members of both the Mixed Choir, Acapella Choir, and Band sang and played music for about an hour before breaking off for lunch and shopping.
“While it was pretty cold, it was really fun to be able to play music with our friends for people in the city,” said freshman Jack Caynon, a trumpet player in the band. “It was also good to be able to get presents for the family!”
Members of the Junior class did their own caroling in Marion the previous weekend as part of their fundraising to give back to the local community for the holidays. The event allowed them to give back in more than just monetary ways as they were able to spread some holiday cheer by caroling out in one of the three towns.
“The student council went caroling in Marion to collect money for needy families,” said junior Alex Wurl. “It was a lot of fun, and we collected over two hundred fifty dollars to donate to those in need!”
Classes weren’t the only ones wrapping up the 2017 year.
The Gender Politics Club used their final meeting of 2017 to take a look back on the eventful year for news stories. Members had the chance to talk about what they thought some of the larger or more important events of the year were, while also beginning to make plans for the new year, including mentioning the opportunity to participate at a Women’s March in Boston next month, which we will follow-up on in the new year.
ORR Update
By Jo Caynon
Thanks, Jo! Love to read your articles.