On Tuesday, February 11, the ConVal High School Book Study Group met in the library after school to discuss The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, a 2024 New York Times bestseller.

This book explores "the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children" (NYT). Haidt argues that the widespread use of smartphones and social media, combined with overprotective parenting, has significantly impacted childhood development. This has led to a rise in mental health issues like anxiety and depression among young people, which he refers to as a profound "rewiring" of childhood.

Book group participants read one-third of the book before each meeting and come together to talk about the impact they have observed that smartphones have on student learning and schools. They also discuss small and large action steps that can bring about positive change.

Several ConVal students had the opportunity to visit the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center at Milford High School on Monday.

The Milford Center offers programs in Business, Carpentry, Computer Science, Culinary Arts, Graphic Arts, Health Science Occupations, Precision Machining and Welding, Pre-Engineering, and Video Production.

The capstone course in video production is an advanced video production course that includes a TV studio where students can learn production elements such as color-grading, audio mixing, Foley sound effects, special visual effects, and remote/field broadcasting.

About 40 students gathered in the ConVal High School Library on Friday for a virtual author visit with Neal Shusterman.

Shusterman is an American young adult fiction author who writes in the science fiction and dystopian genres. He is known for blending philosophical and ethical dilemmas with gripping narratives. His books often explore the consequences of advanced technology, the morality of life and death, and personal identity.

His award-winning novels include the dystopian trilogy Arc of a Scythe series, the four-book series Unwind, and the novel Dry which explores a world suffering from a catastrophic water shortage. His latest book, All Better Now, is about an unprecedented, highly lethal virus whose survivors experience an unexpected long-term effect: utter contentment. 

Shusterman has received the 2015 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his book Challenger Deep, and his novel Scythe was a 2017 Michael L. Printz Honor book. In 2024, Shusterman received the Margaret Edwards Award honoring his "significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens."

Organized by the ConVal librarians Rachael Bowman, Ashley Mudrick, and English teacher Liz Moore, the virtual author visit was shared with both Great Brook School and South Meadow School via Zoom.

Congratulations to Kendrick Edwards who is a recipient of the 2025 DAR Good Citizens Award by the Mary Varnum Platts-Peterborough Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Edwards was nominated and voted on by the faculty and staff at ConVal High School, where a presentation ceremony was held in his honor with Judith Goff, the DAR Chapter Chairperson.

For more than 80 years, the DAR Good Citizen Program has recognized high school seniors who exhibit dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism in their homes, schools, and communities.

Award winners receive a certificate, a Good Citizen pin, and a scholarship. They also receive an invitation to Concord for a tour of the state Capital and an invitation to the statewide awards luncheon ceremony afterward.

The 12 students who constitute ConVal High School's Hope Squad met for the first time with their advisors Alyssa Hamilton, Leslie Holcombe, and Deb RIley for a training session on how to recognize signs of distress in their peers and how to effectively offer support by connecting them with the help and resources they need.

The ConVal Hope Squad is a group of students, chosen by their peers, who will meet regularly with trained advisors with the goal of reducing the stigma that surrounds mental illness and shifting the school’s culture toward greater understanding and compassion for students who are struggling.

Hope Squad is listed on the Suicide Prevention Resource Center’s Best Practices Registry, which confirms that the program has been reviewed by experts and meets the latest standards for preventing suicide, while also proving effective in addressing the factors that increase the risk of youth suicide.

Today, students in Josie Leonard’s 3rd block Western Heritage class and in Alyssa Hamilton's 4th block Creative Writing Workshop channeled their inner anthropologists and creative writers by examining various objects abandoned by an unknown individual going on an overnight trip.

In Leonard’s class, groups of students were challenged to infer where a person was going and what their personality was like, based on the objects they had left behind.

Once students had investigated all of the objects, the students created a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) paragraph about who they thought the artifacts belonged to and what the objects said about the life the person lived using evidence from the bags.

In Hamilton’s class, students worked in groups to examine the contents of the same bags. They used their inference skills about the various items to write a creative narrative about a character and their individual journey.

This joint assignment between a Social Studies and an English class served as an example of cross-disciplinary collaboration to demonstrate how the same evidence can be used as inspiration for different methods of inquiry and forms of expression.

Congratulations to Sarah Grossi who has been named a Fellow by the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). The fellowship trains a cadre of leaders to position ACTE as a leader in developing an educated, prepared, adaptable and competitive workforce by providing CTE educators with opportunities to participate in the development and implementation of laws, regulations and other public policies at the local, state and federal levels.

Grossi is the Careers in Education instructor at the Region 14 ATC at ConVal High School, an Early Childhood Education adjunct professor at Lakes Region Community College in Laconia, and a CAST National faculty member.

Grossi’s undergraduate degrees are in art, early childhood development, and K-8 education. She holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a reading concentration from Keene State College and a graduate certificate in behavior management from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Grossi is an Educators Rising teacher leader, ACTE New & Related Services Division Awards Chair, and ACTE New & Related Services CTE Scholars Lead. Sarah was named a New Hampshire Teacher of the Year 2020 finalist.

The Cougar Unified Basketball team played against the Broncos of Alvirne High School in the ConVal gym this afternoon.

This was the ConVal team's Senior Game, which honored senior players and partners, and provided an opportunity to have a commemorative photo taken with their parents before the game.

The game itself was action-packed and featured great playmaking on both sides, with the Cougars eventually winning with a score of 52-44.