Students Put Their Heads Into A Way To Honor Their Teacher

By Laurie Borst

Bob McHugh has been a teacher at Newtown High School for 33 years. This year, as he prepares to retire, his AP Psychology students found a special way to honor him. Jessica Halloran got the idea to create a plywood cutout like those seen at carnivals with drawings of people with space to put one’s head through.

Jessica drew the scene, her dad helped with construction, and a crew of her classmates painted the scene. Two students in caps and gowns flank a caricature of Mr McHugh. Around these figures are cartoon drawings related to characters Mr McHugh used in class.

“Bert” and “Betty” were the names of people in the examples used in class. Jessica chose Betty Boop and Bert from Sesame Street as the embodiment of the psychology subjects.

An elephant was included. From the beginning of the course, Mr McHugh tells the students that “elephant” is the word of the day. When the class gets to the chapter on memory, then the students are instructed to forget the word of the day. This teaches the students about memory and learning.

The last character included is a potto, a simian creature that plays the banjo and tells stories throughout the text the students use.

On Friday, June 22, the cutout was set up at the high school and students could take their pictures for posterity.

The students who worked on the piece were Addy Fulmer, Shaina Musco, Sara Peters, Ethan Breitling, Ben Wicki, Shannon Hayes, Sean Johnson, Brittany Pasko, Chris Tomascak, and Jess Halloran, all seniors who graduated last week.

Mr McHugh began his teaching career as a math teacher, moved to social studies, and for the last seven years, has taught advanced placement psychology.