@NipmucRegional

Today, Monday, January 24 is the last day of term 2. Grades and comments for term 2 will be posted to PowerSchool on Tuesday, February 1. If students or parents/guardians have questions about missing assignments and/or grades, they should reach out directly to their teacher.

Students with semester (0.5 credit) courses will begin their second-semester courses tomorrow, Tuesday, January 25. Students should review their schedules in PowerSchool to locate relevant course information (room and teacher). If there are any questions regarding a student schedule, students should reach out to their school counselor.

To celebrate the accomplishments from the first semester of the year, we'll be holding a Nipmuc spirit day tomorrow (Tuesday, January 25). All students and staff are encouraged to wear Nipmuc gear as we begin semester 2.

Over the course of the winter, we will engage in a process to review the vision and resources of the library media center at Nipmuc. The work will include several collaborative workshops in which students and staff work together to plan for the future of the media center. This is a great leadership opportunity for our students and a chance to contribute to the future of learning at Nipmuc.

Students who are interested in being part of this process can sign up here. The sign-up process will be open until Monday, January 31.

If you have been feeling weighed down by unexpected daily situations or worried about your loved ones, it is time to take a break to reset. Taking time for yourself is not only beneficial for your own health and well-being but is beneficial to your children by modeling effective coping strategies.

For some of our students, unexpected situations may disrupt their adolescent development. In today's world, we have several mental health support tools at our fingertips, but these tools can also be overwhelming; especially in times of unexpected crisis. However, a crisis can appear differently in individuals and you may ask, "how do I know if my child is experiencing a crisis?" or "when do I call for crisis services?". These are all questions our counseling and Return Support Services (RSS) staff have helped families to navigate throughout this school year.

We provided a "Think Ahead" worksheet that can guide the conversation around mental health between you and your child. It will also help you to recognize early warning signs within your child before a crisis occurs, giving time for intervention.

Our affiliation with Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition (BRYT) services provides us with a free parent support virtual group to discuss mental health crisis services presented by three experts in the field. The link to join can be found by reviewing the BRYT Program's document "All the Questions You've Ever Wanted to Ask about Crisis Services".

Please reach out to your child's school counselor or one of the RSS staff if you have any questions about these resources. We look forward to connecting with you!

Erin Dailey, School Adjustment Counselor/RSS Counselor (edailey@mursd.org)

Rachel Robbins, RSS Academic Coordinator (rrobbins@mursd.org).

Congratulations to our talented actors, actresses, and crew who put on five fantastic productions at this year’s student-directed One Act Play Festival! Those receiving honors from the performances include:

• Best Costumes: Emotional Baggage directed by Carly O'Connell

• Two Best Ensembles: Exposure directed by Aiden Doe, Natalie Kurze and Aaron LaBastie

• and Cut! directed by Darryl Lubin

• Best Lighting Exposure directed by Aiden Doe, Natalie Kurze, and Aaron LaBastie

• Best Set: When Bad Things Happen to Good Actors directed by Hayley Roache, sets by Cecelia Van Norman

• Best Director: Carly O'Connell

• Best Supporting Actor Jacob Snow from Almost True

• Best Supporting Actress Hannah Laurence from Almost True

• Best Actress: Emma Offord from Almost True

• Best Actor: Rowan Laufik from Almost True

• Best Play: Almost True

• Cameo Performances: Sam Vinson, Lucius Cerasuolo, Mia Prentiss, Bridget Murphy, Susan Barrows

• Linara Miller, Andrew George, Owen Thompson, Daniel Fransen, Hailie Tetrault, Rachel DePetrillo, Sam Mayo, and Lauren Scott

The first read-through of The Addams Family, the Musical will take place after school on Monday, January 24 with rehearsals beginning right away. The performances are slated for March 25-27. Students who are interested in learning more can email drama director, Ms. Tam Johnson, at tjohnson@mursd.org.

Click the button below to access the latest newsletter from Nipmuc's Athletic Director, Mr. Schmidt.

Taft Public Library, in collaboration with the Nipmuc Media Center, is hosting a quarterly book club right here at Nipmuc! Books, pizza, ice coffee and other refreshments will be provided. The first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 25th at 2:00 pm in the Gathering Room at Nipmuc. Please see Mrs. O'Brien in the Media Center to sign up and obtain a copy of January's featured book, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz.

We currently are in the process of exploring opportunities to resume the Nipmuc Spanish Exchange Program for students with a passion for language acquisition and international travel. The highly-successful previous Spanish Intercambio 2018 took place with a school in San Sebastian, Spain. For our next exchange trip, we are exploring various countries/possibilities that fit students' interests and current international travel conditions.

We are seeking preliminary interest within the Nipmuc community of those high school students wishing to travel and/or wishing to host Spanish-speaking exchange students during the 2022-2023 school year. We anticipate hosting the exchange students for two weeks (dates TBD) and then having Nipmuc students travel abroad to stay with their host families for another two weeks. Participants must be juniors or seniors during the 2022-2023 school year and have functional proficiency in the Spanish language as shown by current Spanish class enrollment and grades. To express your interest and to receive information and updates via email, please click on this link and complete the form by January 30, 2022. If you have questions please reach out to Mrs. Moloney at tmoloney@mursd.org.