Week of December 15, 2008

Last week, some of my photos ended up on top of one another while others landed on top of part of my narration. After talking with my tech guru Matthew Ross, I will try smaller pictures this week and see what happens. I took this first group of photos (at bottom) backstage before the beginning of the dance concert and then during the party that followed the final performance. Mike and I so enjoy the energy backstage before and during the concert. This is where one truly gets to see the community that has been built during the many weeks of rehearsals. Dancers are happy to help one another with make-up, costumes, movements, or just plain old support. Some students actually do try to get homework done while waiting to go on, while others manage to close their eyes for a quick nap. You can see a happy group of dancers who are warmed up and ready to go! The next group of photos were taken during the party--a time to celebrate an amazing performance and to thank our fearless leader, Annie Dwyer. I had to include a picture of Susannah Butters who appears with Miles, one of our talented dancers. Susannah has been Annie's stage manager for the past two years and she will be sorely missed! For those of you who were able to attend one of the concerts, I know you join me in singing Annie's praises...and those of all her dancers, techies, and musicians.

PEER TUTORING

I included 2 pictures at the very top of our peer tutoring program in action. We are very pleased with the success of this program, which Bob Druhan supervises. At the beginning of each trimester, Bob asks staff members for a list of students who are willing to tutor, in which subjects they feel comfortable tutoring, and when they are available; and a list of students who need tutoring. He then begins the work of matching tutors and tutorees. Some pairings are able to find a period in common when they can work together in the library. Some tutoring takes place after school. Our peer tutors receive community service credit for this work.

Another example of student teaching is senior Susannah Butters who works as Dave's assistant in a beginning algebra class. Susannah is a strong math student who is taking Calculus. While working with Dave with younger students, she travels around the room assisting them with in-class work. She also teaches lessons, when needed. Georgia Valentine fills the same role in Rob's Spanish II class. Having older students work side-by-side with staff members in the classroom offers invaluable lessons for all concerned. We firmly believe in placing students in leadership roles. They are fulfilling a real need in the classroom, sending an important message to younger students, and learning important skills themselves.

WINTER SERVICE DAYS

Students will not be found in their classrooms on Wednesday and Thursday. Instead, you will find them working in one of the following locations: Ronald McDonald House, Duke Gardens, Durham Land Trust, SEEDS, Music Makers, Eno River, Carnivore Preservation, Gleaning out in farm fields, singing in nursing homes, or at CFS. One of the tenets of our philosophy is the Belief in the Spirituality of Life, which implies: "Effort to instill a sense of awe and reverence for nature; responsible stewarship of all our resources; intentional teaching of a humble interaction with, rather than an arrogant attitude toward, living things; commitment to serve and empower others; celebration of the inner life of persons; respect for the harmony of mind, body, and spirit." With these thoughts in mind, we will spend these days in the service of others.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19

Friday is our last half-day before winter break. We will begin the day with a holiday banquet that has been organized by the Clerks Committee. At 10am, we head to the Center for our annual talent show. Every senior must perform (loosely translated) and all others are invited and welcome to perform. This talent show is not open to the public. Our target audience is the Upper School community. It is a great celebration of the many talents that our students possess and a fun way to end the calendar year.

HAPPY HOLIDAY TO ALL. PEACE AND BLESSINGS. SEE YOU IN 2009.

Week of December 8, 2008

We have a big weekend ahead, as my husband Greg and I are babysitting for 3 year old Eden and 15 month old Uma for the weekend. In addition, we have dance rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday afternoons AND this weekend is CFS Visitors Day! For these reasons, I am rushing to get my blog done on Friday. I have had great fun buzzing around taking pictures of student work. At the bottom left, is Max Whelen's project on Cicadas for his Biology class. Frances called this their "Buggy Report." Each student chose a bug to research. Their assignment was to create a visual of some kind--booklet, Power Point, game, etc. They then made oral presentations to the class. Max created a beautiful booklet, complete with his own personal drawings. Next to the Cicadas (depending on the mood of my blog) is Andrew Meriwether's beautiful mask, which he created for his final project for American Fiction. Jon's query to the class was, "What is the fiction of America?" Students had to use two of the texts they had read in the development of their project. Andrew chose Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony and Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!

Working your way up, the next project is Alison Footman's final project for Advanced Yoga. She has created a beautiful rendition of a person in Triangle pose. Sherri's Yoga and Advanced Yoga classes have become so important to many of our students. She is teaching them how to breathe deeply, how to listen to their bodies, and how to move through the challenge of achieving certain poses--what a gift to our community. I have also included two shots from Jasmine Berry's final project for Holocaust Class. She wrote a children's book titled: We're Different--So What! Jasmine chose to focus on how children learn prejudice. After she finished writing her story, she contacted two younger students, Jessye Holmgren-Sidell and Emma Armstrong-Carter to help her with the illustrations. Jessye and Emma did an amazing job of capturing Jasmine's vision. We are hoping to get the complete copy of Jasmine's book on the CFS website. I will keep you posted about that. We are so proud of the many accomplishments our students have made. Through their thoughtfully created projects, they have demonstrated deep learning and the desire to share their knowledge with others.

THE LITTLE PRINCE

Monsieur Ken is taking some of his French classes to the Playmakers' production of The Little Prince on Wednesday morning. Ken would rather the production be in French than in English, but figured it was a great opportunity for his students, many of whom read this book in class.

UPPER SCHOOL DANCE CONCERT

At the very top of the blog is a picture of some of Annie's 2nd period dance class. The actual concert will be performed on Thursday and Friday, December 11 and 12, at 8pm in the Center. There is an open dress rehearsal on Wednesdy night at 7:30pm. The theme for this year's concert is "Emotional Landscape." There will be 30 dancers, junior and senior choreographers, live music, and lots of excitement. Get in line early if you want a seat. The Center fills up quickly. Once again, Annie Dwyer and her students have created magic. We hope you will be able to join us for this event.

FRIDAY NIGHT EXTRAVAGANZA

As I prepare to end this blog, great excitement is building around me. The JV Boys basketball game has already begun. Girls are baking cakes in preparation for their all-girls sleepover. They will cheer their teams on throughout the evening. Girls Varsity plays at 5:30, and the Boys Varsity at 7:00. The girls will then head to the Meeting Hall for the night. Sometimes I wonder if we are actually a boarding school in disguise??

Have a great week. December is flying by all too quickly!

Week of December 1, 2008

Word has it that the first-ever Man Over was a great success! As I was not invited, I shot these photos the next morning. Eric is still sound asleep while Ben is vacuuming the Meeting Hall. Meet new student, Michael Rozier. Our fearless chaperones, Dave and Tim, are seen alive and well the next day! The boys played video games for a couple of hours, then headed to the gym for 2 hours of ball sports, then back to the video games. According to Dave, things were quiet by around 1:00am. They all made it to homeroom the next morning...and to 1st period on time!

Since half of last week was spent on vacation, I have included a shot of our family soccer game. Thanksgiving was such a beautiful day that we came out to school and had a rousing game of soccer. The oldest player was my husband Greg at 61 and the youngest was our grandson Oliver at 5. The woman in the yellow sweater is my mom who came up from Florida. She wore her winter coat most of the week!

We will hit the ground running in the Upper School when we return from Thanksgiving vacation. This week, we will welcome 4th year Middle Schoolers and their parents for Risers' Night on Thursday, from 7:00-8:30. The Quaker N'Oats will be singing. There is also a home basketball game that night. Next Sunday is the CFS Visitors Day, from 2:00-4:00. The Upper School will offer a formal presentation at 2:30 in the Meeting Hall, with the QN's singing once again.

WINTER SERVICE DAYS

We have begun planning for our Winter Service Days on Wednesday and Thursday, December 17 & 18. During those days, all US staff and students will be working out in the community. More to come about these important days as we solidify our plans.

END OF YEAR PROGRAM

Sometime this week, students will be hearing about our End-of-Year Program offerings for this year. The freshman class will be the fifth group to go to Newton Grove to work with the Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry. Off-Campus experiences will include trips to Costa Rica, Lithuania, Utah & Colorado, Trinidad, the Adirondacks, and a Civil Rights trip to Selma, Montgomery, and Atlanta. Locally, we will offer an experience called Triangle Outdoors and a local service group that will work with Welcome Baby. On campus, we will have a group working on the Senior Banquet and Slide Show. In addition to experiences that are offered by our staff, students have the option of planning an internship for themselves. More specific information about all of these opportunities will be given to students in writing. They will sign up for their End-of-Year experience next week.

Have a great week!

Week of November 24, 2008

Welcome to Thanksgiving week! The energy around the Upper School has already begun to rise, and will continue to do so until we dismiss school at noon on Wednesday. I apologize if any of these photos have landed on top of one another. As you can imagine, I don't plan it that way...just the way of the blog that has a mind of its own. For that reason, I have included a number of shots of our fall symposium, in hopes that you get to see some or maybe even all of them. Please notice the amazing spread of yummy food for our potluck lunch, which was enjoyed by all. Thanks so much to all of you who contributed. Please remind your child to pick up and bowls, plates, or utensils. We still have some things left.

MORE PHOTOS

I included snapshots from three of our workshops: Marybeth Dugan and Jenny Rousseau are sharing letters from a soldier who served in Afghanistan. Our students were able to interview this soldier live through Skype--amazing! You can also see Ronen Plesser, Associate Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Duke, who is talking about string theory, dark matter, and dark energy--fascinating and engaging! Lastly, we were pleased to welcome back CFS grad John Richardson talking about sustainability and energy policies. John is a Sustainability Officer for the town of Chapel Hill. He did a great job of actively involving our students. At the top of the blog, I have highlighted our band class and the Quaker N'Oats. Of special note are our three soloists: Drew, Mariah, and Joseph. All in all, fall symposium was a great day. Many thanks to Bob Druhan and members of our Clerks Committee who planned and organized this important educational experience for our community.

END-OF-TERM REPORTS

It is Sunday afternoon, and I am not alone in the Upper School. Staff members are scattered around the building. They are finishing and copying their End-of-Term reports, which are due Monday morning at 8:30am. Reports will go in the mail on Wednesday.

ALL-SCHOOL MEETING FOR WORSHIP

On Tuesday morning at 10:35, the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools will join together in the gym for a meeting for worship. We will light 3 candles for our early schools who will be having a moment of silence in their respective locations. In response to a request by Middle School teacher Rachel Anderson, we will come together to experience meeting for worship as a whole school. Two Upper School juniors will be on hand with microphones so that shared messages may be heard by all. This will truly be a time to be grateful for all we have.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We will hit the ground running after we return from this short vacation. I am hopeful that we may all (myself included!) take time to slow down and enjoy our families. See you in December!

Week of November 17, 2008

Welcome to the winter term! As you can see, I have included many photos. I just couldn't resist our impressive student art. There are paintings above by Amelia's Drawing and Painting students, Tyson Douglass, Tony Durham, Spencer Mitchell-Schwartz, Emma Armstrong-Carter, Jessey Holmgren-Sidell, and Emily Reif. There is also an unsigned Holocaust project. I managed to get a couple of photos of students rehearsing for the winter dance concert. They are all working so hard. At the bottom, you can see Jamie, Elise, Dave, and (hidden) Susan who were presenting a session at the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools annual conference, which was held last Friday at Ravenscroft. As you know, Friday was a staff workday, a day that we use to begin writing End-of-Term reports. These Upper School staff members gave up important writing time in order to share with other schools what they do best. Our group offered three presentations: End of Year program, Senior Seminar, and the new Sophomore Curriculum. I was extremely proud of all of them.

Speaking of End-of-Term reports, they are due to be completed on Monday, November 24th and will be in the mail before we leave for Thanksgiving vacation. It's hard to believe that we are already one-third of the way through the year. As you know, our fall symposium will be held on Monday of this week. Our topic is Current Affairs, and we have excellent sessions planned for our students on a variety of contemporary topics. We will balance the serious learning with our potluck lunch, band and Quaker N'Oats performances, and an hour of fun activities. Parents are most welcome to join us for the musical performances, which should begin at 11:45am on the patio. Also on Monday, we have a group of 15 students travelling to Cary Academy for the Triangle Diversity Alliance annual conference.

The basketball and swimming seasons have begun. Our first basketball home games were last Friday night. I was happy to see so many fans cheering for our teams. The swim meets aren't as easy to get to, but I will do my best to keep you posted. As Thanksgiving vacation draws near, I hope we are all able to slow down a little and enjoy time with our families. When I write this blog next week, I will be preparing for a large family gathering that will include four generations. Until then, I hope you have a great week!

The Upper School goes to DC 11.07.08

What a beautiful day in Washington, DC! As you can see, we made it to many monuments and museums. We did a lot of walking--many sore legs by the end of the day. The Holocaust Museum touched our hearts. The Museum of Natural History educated us, especially in the new Hall of Oceans. Tours of the Capital and Supreme Court were awesome and enlightening. Our students were responsible and wonderful about staying with their groups and reporting to check-in times at the appointed hour...or earlier. Dinner at Union Station was fun. Our bus drivers met us at 7pm sharp and we headed for home. Thanks again, parents, for supporting this full community event. We had a great time!

Election Night Watch Party 11.04.08

Just some photo remembrances from our election watch party. The Meeting Hall was full of students, parents, siblings, friends, and staff members. Even Renee Prillaman, Head of Middle School, helped out by mopping the floor! Samantha Strom had prepared a Political Jeopardy game to warm the crowd up before returns started coming in. Bryce's Campaign '08 class prepared a party feast for all of us. Final stragglers finally headed for home at 11:30pm. You can see how tired Tony and Mariah were as they waited for rides home. What a great night!