Happy Holidays!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE UPPER SCHOOL! I hope you are in the mood for looking at pictures. Our last week of school was filled with exciting activities--many Kodak moments. As we head off to our winter break, I want to share some of them with you. On our last day of school, we presented our annual Senior (and others) Talent Show. This year, "Talent" was the operative word. I finally had to turn on the lights and end the magic at ten minutes after 12:00. (School had ended at 12:00.) The kids were still going! Below, you can see Shane and Spencer of Thunder Schools. I'm sorry that I couldn't also get bass player, Andrew, in this picture.

Here, you can see Afreya and Jazmun in a lively rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas." Very funny and full of surprises. Speaking of surprises, our art teacher Amelia made the happy announcement, through an original song, that her baby (due in May) will be a BOY!

Music teacher Drew and his bass-playing friend wowed the audience with two jazz numbers. As always, Drew was amazing!

Kelsey played a beautiful Bach piece...in addition to MCing with Eric.

Hannah and Haley did a beautiful number by Jackson Brown.

Sarah wrote a skit about being a "Strong Empowered Womyn." Aydin (unseen) played the part of Mr. Darcy. Here, you can see Alex as Edward Cullen. Very funny!

The Bishop siblings joined with friend Emma on an original song by Leah. Very pretty!

The Quaker N'Oats and carolers got us off to a seasonal start with Deck the Halls and Jingle Bells. This group is never lacking in enthusiasm.

On Thursday night, we hosted a CFS Upper School RAVE. CFS grad, Marcus, returned to DJ. Below, you can see head light man, Alexander, looking oh, so ghostly in the magical RAVE lights.

As you know, we spent Wednesday and Thursday in community service activities all around Durham, Chapel Hill, and Franklin County. Here are some of the happy carolers before heading off to a variety of nursing homes. They also took time to sing for the early schoolers and Center staff.

Elise and her little elves prepared over 200 college application packets for mailing.

Max and Xixi collaborated on a logo and flyer for our MLK Jr. celebration. (See below for more information.)

Ken, Frances, and crew drove an hour and a half to a farm in Franklin County where they gleaned vegetables for the NC Food Bank. We were grateful that the weather cooperated.

Lots and lots of collards!

I did want to mention two other activities that also happened last week. On Tuesday, Jamie's Love in the Western World class went to see Phantom of the Opera at the DPAC, thanks to a generous donation by one student's parents. Willy and I were able to join the group for this very exciting evening. On Wednesday, members of the Hitchcock class went to the Carolina Theatre to see Psycho. I was able to share that, since seeing this movie when it first came out, I have never (and I do mean NEVER) had an opaque shower curtain.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. CELEBRATION

Once again, we have planned a full week of activities, which will lead up to our annual celebration on Monday, January 18th, at 10:30am. This year's theme is Unmasking Our History. We are focusing on local Civil Rights history in Durham and Chapel Hill. There are many opportunities for involvement. Jonathan Henderson will lead the community drumming ensemble. Nia Patterson Downing will direct the community gospel choir. All ages of students, parents, and friends are welcome to join these groups. African Dance guru, Chuck Davis, will work with two groups of dancers. Middle/Upper School dancers will dance to Michael Jackson's Heal the World, while the elders (Chuck wants MEN and WOMEN!) will perform the welcoming ceremony. During the week of January 11-15, students will be making masks with Carol Blackmore. Many more activies will also be available. As soon as we finalize the calendar with rehearsal times, I will get it out to everybody.

ARIEL'S WAY

I just stopped by the Center to check on the progress of Ariel's Way rehearsals. If you haven't already got your tickets, run--don't walk--to your computer to order them immediately! This show is going to be a professional production with alumni and friends who are so very talented. Information about tickets can be found at the CFS website (http://www.cfsnc.org/). Seriously, get your tickets NOW! I can't wait!

Best wishes for a warm and happy holiday for you and yours. Parents, please accept our deep appreciation for sharing your wonderful children with us. We are honored to know and work with them. See you in 2010!

Week of December 14, 2009

As we head into our final week of school for 2009, I find myself hoping that life just might slow down a little. The dance concert was a big success, and Annie is now in Wilmington celebrating her son's graduation from UNC-W. We will have only 2 days of classes this week, as Wednesday and Thursday are our Winter Service Days (see below). During our half-day on Friday, we will present our annual Upper School Talent Show, which is for the Upper School community only. We just don't have room to invite visitors. Meanwhile, I did want to share with you some Frances-related photos. Her fall term Advanced Biology class focused on permaculture. Frances's students built the cold frame you see here. Her winter term Cooking class is now using the yummy vegetables that are growing in the cold frame as they cook meals for the rest of us. Two weeks ago, we enjoyed vegetarian chili with a green salad. Last week, we had home-made macaroni and cheese with a green salad. What a treat!



Frances's freshman biology classes have been learning about cells. Using a Petri dish to represent the cell membrane of a eukaryotic cell, the freshmen made 3-dimensional representations of the organelles of the cell from colored clay. This activity really helped everyone to relate structure and function.

December is crunch time for our college counselor, Elise. She told me last week that every time she opens her office door, there is a line of students waiting to see her. Elise writes a detailed letter of recommendation for each senior. She also keeps track of all of the paper work that we send to colleges, which includes transcripts and letters of recommendation from teachers. She helps students with their essays and meets with them about their ever-changing (for some) college lists. College admissions officers call her for clarification about certain students. She makes herself available to students and parents through email and her cell phone. Meanwhile, she teaches two classes and meets with CFS grads who come to visit when they are home for winter break. Suffice it to say that January 1st (the deadline for many college applications) is a happy day for Elise!

WINTER SERVICE

As I mentioned, Wednesday and Thursday are our Winter Service Days. The call to service is one of our Quaker values and an important aspect of our Upper School education. As a part of our graduation requirements, students must get 2 community service credits each year. Most of our End-of-Year experiences are service based. During this time of year, we set aside 2 days for service. On Wednesday and Thursday, our students will be involved in the following activities: Eno River clean-up, gardening with SEEDS and at Duke Gardens, gleaning for the NC Food Bank, working for the Durham County Library, the Scrap Exchange, Carolina Tiger Rescue, and the Durham Land Trustees. A large group will be caroling in nursing homes and hospitals, while 2 groups will be working on campus. Just a reminder to parents that students should be dressed appropriately for the service in which they will participate.

UPPER SCHOOL RAVE

This announcement is hot off the press. The tech crew for the dance concert decided that the lighting was "so cool" that we needed to have a dance. This Thursday, from 8:30-11:00, we will host a RAVE in the Center. We have invited our most recent CFS grads to join in the fun. The donation is $5, which will be put towards the tech budget. Finances should not keep people away. We want everybody to come and have a great time! If the $5 is a problem, kids should talk to me and I will let them in.

More to come later this week. The lists for our End-of-Year program should be up by Friday at the latest. I hope to include some updates on our Winter Service days and the talent show. See you soon!

Week of November 30, 2009...and looking ahead

Often, when I am talking about the dance concert, I include photos of dancers. This year, I decided to highlight the real heroes of the dance concert--Annie Dwyer and the tech crew! Above, you can see Annie (our fearless director on her birthday!), Stephen Ellison (lighting designer), and Esther (stage manager) preparing for the lighting tech day on Saturday morning. Below, you can see our amazing tech crew: Eric, Alexander, Katie, Will, and Neal. These dedicated students have been at school almost every night this week, hanging and focusing lights. As I told them this morning, tech weekend is really my favorite part of the dance concert process because this is when the dances truly come to life. We are so appreciative of the dedication and commitment of these students. They care deeply about highlighting the dancers in a beautiful and memorable way. The Annual Dance Concert will be presented on Thursday and Friday at 8pm in the Center. There is an open dress rehearsal at 7:30 on Wednesday. If you don't want to fight the crowd, my suggestion would be to come on Wednesday. The theme this year is a collaboration inspired by the question: What sustains you in times of trouble?








Last Tuesday, December 1st, was World AIDS Day. Tim took some students to Charlottesville, VA, to see the AIDS quilt. Meanwhile, we celebrated in the Upper School by making a quilt of our own. Each advisee group decorated a square with messages about AIDS or favorite activities and ideas of their own.

Here, you can see Asante holding the completed quilt. Below, members of Frances and Gustavo's advisee groups work on their quilt squares.

French teacher, Ken, teaches a class in guitar making. Ken has worked with a luthier in the western part of North Carolina and has made his own guitars. What an amazing opportunity for our students! Below, you can see Spencer playing his recently completed guitar. We have learned that making one's own guitar is a long process. Spencer started his guitar during the spring term of last year. He and Ken continued to work through the summer and into the fall. Spencer now has his very own hand-made guitar!

Look for seniors Hannah Anderson-Baranger and Sarah Nydick Cheshire in print. They have co-written an article for a local bi-monthly newspaper entitled Health & Healing. The theme of this month's edition is Balance. The title of Hannah and Sarah's article is "Fostering the Muses: Two high school seniors discuss their strategies for enhancing creativity while maintaining sanity." Congratulations to these talented creative writers. Their article is delightful!

Our art teacher, Amelia, was most happy this week to welcome potter and US parent, David Gould, to her Clay and Sculpture classes. David demonstrated methods of making bowls, plates, and bubble pots. We appreciate David's generosity in sharing his deep knowledge of pottery making with our students. I look forward to seeing what they will create after spending time with David.

SCHOOL STARTS AT 8:30am

I want to remind parents and students that school starts at 8:30am. It is so important that students be on time for school! We start our day either in individual advisee groups or all together in group homeroom. 8:30-8:40 is a time to take attendance, share announcements, and check in with each other before students head to their 1st period classes. When students are late, they often miss important announcements and feel disconnected from their advisee group. Parents, we hope that you will help us by encouraging your child to get to school on time. We will have a group homeroom this Monday morning as we prepare for signing up for Winter Service Days and the End-of-Year program. Needless to say, it is distracting when students arrive late. We appreciate your support in this endeavor.

WE MIGHT HAVE SNOW FLURRIES TONIGHT. HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Week of November 16, 2009

As we near our Thanksgiving vacation, I love to wander around the Upper School and think about the many things for which we are grateful. Here are just a few...



Teachers who are teaching to their passions. Here, you can see Susan addressing our community on Friday in preparation for viewing the documentary, "Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13 and 14-year-olds to Prison to Die." This video is put out by the Equal Justice Initiative and has been studied by Susan's Civil Rights class. Her class decided that we all needed to see this video. I hope you will ask your child about it. Susan's students helped to introduce the documentary to the rest of us and then led small group discussions following the viewing.

We are grateful for students who are actively engaged and attentive...students who care deeply about learning. Here, you can see the Civil Rights students leading discussions following the video.

We are grateful for our advisee groups. Building community is the foundation of life in the Upper School. Community building begins with our advisee groups. We are so grateful to our staff members for taking this role to heart.

We are grateful for friendships.

We are grateful for students who give of themselves in service to the school.

We are grateful for students who help other students.

We are grateful for our newly beautified school store, thanks to the senior service class.

END-OF-TERM REPORTS

Our staff members have been very busy this week. They have been grading exams, reading papers, and writing End-of-Term reports, in addition to starting a new term. For some of them, that means starting all new classes. Thanksgiving vacation will come as a welcome respite. The End-of-Term reports will go in the mail on Wednesday. We hope you will take the time to read through these reports with your child. Sharing the reports is a great way to have a meaningful conversation about classes and how things are going in school.

STUDENT-TAUGHT CLASSES

We often talk about wanting our students to take ownership of their learning. We don't expect students to walk through the door with this capability. Taking on such an impressive responsibility is a learned behavior. Working closely with their advisors and teachers, students develop their own understanding of this concept. One area where this skill is especially evident is in student-taught classes. If a senior is passionate about a certain subject, s/he can write a proposal for a class they want to teach and find a staff member to supervise them in this endeavor. This term, we have two seniors teaching classes. Marley is teaching a class in Acting for Film. By day one, she already had her students doing improvisations and by day two, they were working on monologues. Shane is teaching Improvisation under Guillermo's supervision. He is also co-teaching a class in Hitchcock with me. After watching a variety of Hitchcock's films, our students will write and produce a screenplay in the style of Hitchcock. Shane and I are very excited about this experience!

ZERO, INFINITY, AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF MATH

Simply stated, Dave loves math. Each year, we discover that he is not alone. In addition to their already challenging course loads, some students want to challenge themselves further by taking this course, which centers around changes in the historical development of key mathematical concepts from both mathematical and philosophical points of view. For texts, they use Euclid's Winter by Mlodinow and Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Seife. Dave and his students dig deep as they discuss concepts that are way beyond me!

Have a great vacation. Enjoy time with your family. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all!

Fall Symposium Highlights

What a great day! The sun streams through the windows of the Meeting Hall as Bob leads our students in a town meeting discussion. The morning of workshops was a complete success. Here are some student comments about the day: "It was very eye-opening to learn about the differences and common threads in every religion." "I learned a lot about the Middle East that I had never been taught before. My views of the Middle East have certainly changed." " Learning about climate change and its effects on Middle Eastern security was both interesting and thought-provoking. I hope that future advancements in green technology will help ease the strains between countries in the Middle East." "Learning about Brit Tzedek v'Shalom was very inspiring and made me want to find out more information about the Middle East."

Chef Philip Gary stands back as students prepare to take part in our Middle Easter feast. Our three cooking workshops truly did feed the masses...and it was delicious! Taboule and hummus.

The Upper School band ensemble and Quaker N'Oats perform during lunch.

Belly Dancing class with Wanda Brown. Yoga with Sherri.

Cooking Iranian food with Susan Dunlap.Hummus and taboule with Dotty Hoyle.

Learning about prayer flags with Ann Roth.

Cooking preparation with Philip and Viviann.

The weather was perfect. Our students were actively engaged and attentive. All workshop presenters were thoughtful and well-prepared. Thanks to all for a really great day!