Ms. Nichols: the New Art Teacher Who Can Whistle Four Ways

Born in Stowe Vermont, Ms. Nichols, the new art teacher, grew up skiing. Growing up, she attended Stowe High School, Williston-Northampton School in Massachusetts, the University of Vermont and MICA, the Maryland Institute College of Art, for graduate school. At UVM, Ms. Nichols majored in studio art and art history, and one of her favorite experiences was living in Italy during her junior year. She went on to earn a graduate degree in art education at MICA. Before coming to teach at NCCS, she worked in New York fashion industries such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Jimmy Choo, and for the past five years she taught at a school in North Carolina.

Ms. Nichols’ hobbies include skiing, traveling, cooking, reading, people watching, and listening to music, especially live. Two of her favorite activities show the reasons she is interested in art. She loves being outside and in nature, which are two characteristics that are shown in some of her artwork. Ms. Nichols’ favorite type of art is abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism involves putting ideas, feelings, and emotions on canvas. It is an emotional art where the object has no form or figure. Helen Frankenthaler is an abstract expressionist, and she is Ms. Nichols’ favorite artist. The painting at the top of the article is one of Frankenthaler’s most famous pieces, called Mountains and Sea. Some of the reasons that Ms. Nichols loves art include that it is expressive, relaxing, and fun. She feels that art can help work out emotions, and she has always been a visual learner. The subject of art history also fascinates Ms. Nichols. She finds it interesting to study a piece of artwork, learn the year it was made, the background of the artist, and its historical context. Using this information, she is then able to decipher the piece of art. Ms. Nichols is an interesting person and will definitely be an awesome art teacher. I can’t wait to see what she brings to NCCS!

       -By Charlotte Zonis

       

Interesting Facts about Ms. Nichols:

   -  Can whistle 4 ways

   -  Loves to sing

   - Was delivered at home

   - Her favorite word in Italian: Sottotitoli, which means subtitles

   - She has a “done dance” for when she finishes a big project

   - She recently went to see the beach where the movie The Goonies was filmed

Ms. Oakes: Extreme Game Show Contestant!

Mayze T.

Ms. Oakes is acting as the director of secondary school placement this year, filling in for Mrs. Victor. Essentially, she is helping seventh, eighth and ninth graders find their next schools. When she isn’t helping all of us out, she likes reading, going to craft fairs and antique shows, and watching movies and TV. Her favorite shows include 24, Glee, Grays Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, and Friday Night Lights. Her all time favorite movies are Gone With The Wind, My Cousin Vinny, Dr. Zhivago, Schindler’s List, and Mr. Holland’s Opus. Before she came to NCCS, she was a chemistry teacher at Staples High Schoolfor ten years. She was in admissions at NCCS for seventeen years. Ms. Oakes says that she is “the proud mother of two Country School graduates.” Her son, Ryan, is a professional magician, and he has performed at school several times. Her daughter, Lauren, is currently in a PHD program at Stanford, studying environmental issues. Ms. Oakes also has two cats. Her favorite books are Three Cups of Tea, The Kite Runner, and Water for Elephants. Ms. Oakes says that this year she is enjoying working with the very students that she first met during the admissions process and “seeing how wonderfully they have grown and matured in their years here at Country School. That’s one of the most fun things about the job…being in the energy of the Upper School building and working with parents and students that I’ve known for years.” A little known fact about Ms. Oakes: in 1980 she was a contestant on the $20,000 Pyramid!

World Traveler Comes to NCCS!

By Mayze T.

Mrs. Platt has the new role of school counselor for the Upper School and the Middle School. She also teaches Life Skills to the ninth grade. Before she came to New Canaan Country School, she was the school counselor at a school in Washington D.C., and prior to that she was a middle school teacher in Hawaii. Outside of school, she likes to run, read, bake, and travel. In the past years she ran in several triathlons, including Ironman triathlons and she has been to many different countries. She has been to every continent except Antarctica, and her favorite place that she has visited is Nepal. Last year she spent New Year’s Day at the base of Mount Everest. She enjoys a variety of books; her favorites range from

Water for Elephants to Into Thin Air, a book about Mount Everest. Her favorite movies are Elf, Christmas Vacation, and Serendipity. When asked about OAT, she says, “OAT was so much fun! It was definitely a highlight [of the year]. [It was also] a great way to get to know some of the students and staff. We were incredibly lucky with the weather.”

New Teacher - Ex- Punk Rock Diva

By Mayze T.

Mrs. Carroll is the new English teacher in the Stevens building. Outside of school, she likes to read, write, cook, and walk.  She has two dogs, one named Toast and one named Ziggy. When she was a student, she said that at first she went to a “very proper girls’ school in London where we had to write with fountain pens and go for prayers every morning.” However, in high school she went to a more “non-traditional” school where students called their teachers by their first names. She says that NCCS is a good blend of non-traditional and traditional schools. She likes the school because it values “curiosity, community, and a nice balance of work and play and high standards in everything.” Her first job after college was as a “Photo Stylist.”  A photo stylist is “a person who gets all the props and wardrobe that you see in pictures.” She has, apparently, chosen the wardrobes for several famous people. “I’ve seen Martha Stewart and Al Roker in their underwear,” she says and laughs. She worked as a photo stylist while she was in graduate school in New York. After graduate school, she was a writer and editor for about a decade. She had three books published and edited a variety of others. She also had articles published in the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times Magazine, and several literary magazines. A Fun Fact about Mrs. Caroll: She was in a punk band when she was younger. She played keyboard and wrote the lyrics. When her father came to one of their concerts, he said, “The popcorn was very good!”

New Teacher - The Amazing Unicyclist

By Mayze T.

Mr. Kucher is the new Upper School Student Services teacher.  He teaches the English Lab classes for all of the grades in the Upper School. He says, “I try and help students find their learning strengths and use their strengths to come up with strategies to work with some of the more challenging areas of their learning.”

 Outside of school, Mr. Kucher enjoys reading and writing. Last year he wrote a play that was produced in Massachusetts. This play is going to be produced in Manhattan in March 2011. As for what he likes to read, Mr. Kucher enjoys reading all fiction. He says, “I have my guilty pleasures, like John Grisham, but I equally like reading more well-reviewed literature. The most recent book I read was Freedom (by Jonathan Frantzen). It’s a tough read, very similar to The Great Gatsby. I go between erudite and easy to read books.” He says that after he finished Freedom, he read a more mainstream book that was the fourth in a series. Any guesses?

Before he came to New Canaan Country School, Mr. Kucher worked at the Southfield Center in Darien, which he helped open. He was their executive functions/ADHD coach. In high school, he did several television commercials.  Many years later he was the spokesperson for a plumbing company. He estimates that he did about twenty-five commercials for them in the last six to seven years. As for a strange talent - “I can ride a unicycle,” he says.

Super-Tough Hockey Relation of Jesse James

By Mayze T. 

Ms. Elmore is the new seventh grade math teacher in the Upper School. She is usually found in Ms. Sherwin’s room, teaching her class, or doing a crazy project like the “Barbie Bungee Jumping.” She grew up in Long Island, where she played ice hockey. There weren’t any girls’ teams where she lived, so she played on the all-boys’ team. She has been teaching for about seventeen years, in places that range from New York to Michigan and Texas. She loves to travel around the country. She met her husband around the same time that she started teaching. He is now the head of the Upper School at GFA, the school that her eight-year-old daughter attends. She is an avid reader. Her favorite books include The Little Prince, The Velveteen Rabbit, All The King’s Men, The Book Thief, and To Kill a Mockingbird, and she has written two math and science books! She also enjoys listening to music and is a pianist herself. She enjoys playing pieces by Debussy and Michael Nyman (a more modern composer). Her movie of choice is “Billy Elliot”, which she has seen as both a play on Broadway and a movie. Why does she like it so much? “The dance and the storyline”, she says.