Thanksgiving break is here, and we want to be sure to express deep gratitude for our truly outstanding school community and all who support it.  Thanks so much to those who made the Fall Fundraiser and Silent Auction a success and to all who attended. As alumna Lily Oswald reminded us in her moving speech, Animas plays a significant role in shaping young people's lives, providing them with opportunities to " build genuine relationships and collaboratively work towards solutions."  Lily graduated from the University of Oregon last spring with a Planning, Public Policy and Management major and is now working as a city planning consultant for the City of Durango; she shared that AHS was instrumental in allowing her to realize her "goals and values." Read Lily's entire speech here. 

When we return from the break, we will have three weeks of classes, followed by Presentations of Learning.  There are several exhibitions planned for the time between Thanksgiving and Winter Break, and students will be working hard to wrap up projects and finish the semester strong.

The Wednesday after Thanksgiving, we will present Osprey Week choices to students at All School Meeting. Osprey Week is a week-long educational adventure from March 19-23 that allows students and staff to learn new content and develop skills while participating in enriching hands-on activities.AHS' culture is strengthened through shared experiences which build stronger relationships between students, staff and community members. For Osprey Week, our classroom is the world beyond our school walls. Over the break, please look at the list of Osprey Week 2018 choices as a family and begin the discussion of what works well for you all. Students will pick their top five choices on December 6 through an online survey and Osprey Week groups will meet to begin planning in January.

	senior Maya Blaisdell suggests a way to refine the Great Divide exhibition after a trial run through

Thank you to community educator and youth advocate Scott Smith, from La Plata Youth Services, who met with our juniors and seniors during Advisory this past week to discuss issues surrounding substance use and abuse. Scott will meet with freshmen and sophomores on Wednesday, November 29 during Advisory to give students information and skills that help them think critically and make healthy choices around drug and alcohol use.

On Thursday, November 30 between 5:00 and 8:00pm, the AHS class of 2018 invites you to their exhibition The Growing Divide: Class Consciousness in our Community at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. Seniors are designing an immersive, interactive experience for exhibition attendees that will share what they have learned about the forces that shape income inequality through the Socioeconomic Class and Inequality Project. You won't want to miss this one.

Other classes that will be exhibiting their work in December include Sara Price's 9th grade Humanities, Tina Hott's Physics, Shane Nelson's 10th grade Humanities, Ashley Carruth's 11th grade Humanities and Britt Gordon's Drawing. See the calendar of upcoming events for dates and times.

We are sending Humanities/Spanish teacher Jessica McCallum off on Thanksgiving break with lots of love and support, as her baby is due any minute now.  Jessica plans to be on maternity leave through late February and we are grateful to have Brady Wilson stepping in as her long-term substitute.  Many thanks to Jared Wright for filling in for Stephen Sellers--we are excited to welcome Stephen back on the Monday after Thanksgiving break!

The AHS Student Council has decided to extend the Food Drive and we will continue to collect donations the week after break, with all non-perishables being donated to Manna Soup Kitchen. Please open your hearts and your cupboards and bring in those cans, boxes and jars!

Finally, we would like to share our gratitude with our families for sharing their children with us, our students for inspiring us daily and our teachers and staff for giving so much of themselves to their work as educators.  Truly, we have much to be thankful for.

We hope you all enjoy time with family and friends over the break. Thanks for all you do to help the Ospreys soar!