Week of February 16, 2009

Spring Symposium was a great success! The photos above tell the story of some of the wonderful workshops that were offered by students. From top to bottom: The Trash Fashion "women" grace our stage. Kelsey's Stomp group rehearses in the Hut. Madeline's jewelry makers show off their earrings. Meanwhile, Willy's Yearbook class was hard at work in the computer lab. Jazmun's Hip Hop group strikes a pose. Tasha and one of our Middle School visitors work on their trash fashions. After a time of workshop sharing, we enjoyed a chilly cookout, which was followed by a performance by our Quaker N'Oats. The afternoon was filled with a longer-than-expected town meeting. If you are looking for some dinner table conversation, here are some of the questions the students tackled: At CFS, do we consciously create a community which allows individuals to be themselves without fear of ridicule? Are we encouraged to do so? When the US community works, does it work because students make it work? Do teachers gossip about students? Do we have bullying in the Upper School? What, if anything, is done about it? What should we do about cell phones?

BAGEL TUESDAYS

The Bagel Tuesdays money and forms must be handed in no later than Friday of this week. Forms are available on Willy's desk.

CABARET

The US Cabaret is set for Saturday, March 7th, at 7:30pm in the Center. Come one, come all! You are invited to help out by either performing, making a dessert to sell, or just coming to cheer our wonderful entertainment. If you are interested in performing (we love parent/child duets!), please contact me. If you are willing to make a dessert and wrap it for selling, please contact Frances (fbrindle@cfsnc.org). If you are willing to cheer the entertainment, please be in your seat by 7:30pm on March 7th. This is a family-friendly event!

Today is our winter advisee day. We are preparing advisees for their student-led parent conferences. I am off to see my mom in Florida next weekend and won't return to school until Tuesday, February 24th. Have a great week!

At the end of a term, there are so many wonderful projects and activities to cover photographically. I have taken the chance of including lots of photos in this blog, hoping that they don't all land on top of one another. Starting at the bottom, I have included three photos of Catherine's amazing final project for Jamie's Dante class. The assignment was to create a visual expression of hell. Hopefully, you can see Catherine's complete project (center, I think!). She created 5 sections: The Selfish (depicted bottom left), The Traitorous, The Gluttonous (bottom right), The Wasteful, and The Murderous and Criminal. Catherine put a great deal of thought and time into this awesome project. Hopefully, you will see it in person at our Art Show in May.

SCULPTURE CLASS

Above Catherine's project, you will see two outdoor photos. Amelia's Sculpture classes studied the beautiful installations of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist who creates his works completely of and in nature. Amelia's classes were asked to do the same. I have included a fort that was built by Asher and Luis. You can also see one of Amelia's classes as they view an installation that was created in the stream.

IMMIGRATION AND CAPSTONE CLASSES

Susan and Jonathan McGovern have been co-teaching a class on Immigration. Jonathan has been covering the myths of immigration with their students. For their final project, students were divided into groups. Each group researched one myth and developed a presentation to the class that included an interactive activity, a visual aid, and written responses to questions. The group included above researched America's refugee policies as they learned about the following myth: The United States has a generous refugee policy. Meanwhile, Susan is also co-teaching the Capstone class with Jon. Each Capstone class chooses a service project, and this group is raising money for Father Tony's Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry in Newton Grove. They created this great poster that includes The Reality, The Call to Action, and The Dream. As I write this blog on Sunday afternoon, this class is out on 9th Street, educating people and raising money for Father Tony's work. At the very top of this week's blog, I included shots of Gus teaching Geometry and Guillermo with some of his fans.

BEAR NIGHT

The Capstone class has planned another fundraiser for this week--Bear Night! This evening promises to be a great end-of-winter-term celebration. From 7-9pm, students will play Bear (a game brought to us by former CFS parent and DES Head Teacher Cesanne Berry)--a wild and exciting game that is played in the dark. After Bear, Jon and Susan's class has other games in store for the group. The cost for participating in these games is $5. Bear Night always provides our students with an evening of good old fashioned fun.

SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS

As we near the end of the term, our schedule will change from day to day:

Thursday, February 12 Last day of winter term and Bear Night

Friday, February 13 Staff Workday for writing reports

Monday, February 16 Spring Symposium (Regular school hours for students.)

Tuesday, February 17 Advisee Day (Each group has a different plan.)

Wednesday, February 18 Staff Workday to plan for spring term classes

Thurs/Fri, February 19/20 Student-led parent conferences

Monday, February 23 First day of spring term

Please enjoy this poem by ee cummings: i thank You God for most this amazing

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and love and wings:and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any-lifted from the no

of all nothing-human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Week of February 2, 2009

Welcome to February as we near the end of the Winter Term. Amelia's Sculpture classes have a display of final projects in the glass case in the Meeting Hall. I have included some of their projects in this blog. Owen Martin's message of hope is made of twigs and leaves. Kyle Gouchoe-Hanas's corn husk fairy flies on the wire stand that she created. Iris Carter-Schafer created an underwater scene completely out of yarn...and complete with a yarn row boat that floats around her fish bowl. Above those pictures, you can see some shots of the Improv show that was performed this past weekend. This was Guillermo's first time on stage. He followed Sam Schopler's direction well and evoked much laughter from the audience. We look forward to one final performance that this class will offer to the Upper School community next week. As we move through the next few days, we will pack in a variety of activities, final projects, exams, papers, and a brief look ahead to spring.

PARENT FORUM

Does your child have difficulty focusing for long periods of time? Does s/he have trouble prioritizing assignments, especially long-term assignments? Is it hard for your child to get from point A to poing B without getting distracted or losing something? Is careful organization a challenge for your child? If you have answered Yes to any or some of these questions, I hope you will join us Wednesday night in the Meeting Hall for our Parent Forum. We will Meet and Greet from 7:00-7:30, and our program will begin at 7:30. Russell Colver (Academic Coach) and Sarah Bryce (Psychiatrist) will present information about ADD, ADHD, depression, and anxiety, most specifically, but will also deal more generally with issues of organization, focusing, keeping track of assignments, etc. The purpose of this evening is to share information, answer questions, and talk about ways that parents can support/help their children. We hope you can make it...and be sure to bring your questions.

NEW SPRING TERM CLASSES

During the coming week, we will finalize spring term classes with our advisees. The following new classes are being offered:

***Our Bolivian Intern, Alicia, will offer a class in Bolivian Literature, which will also cover Bolivian history. Alicia says that she will cover other South American countries as well.

***Olivia (Rob LaVelle's sub) will stay with us through the spring term, after Rob's return to his Spanish classes. She will teach a class on Global Health Challenges, which is designed like an introductory college course in public health, aiming to give students a solid knowledge of the greatest contemporary global health challenges: Infectious diseases, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, and analytical methods in public health.

***Senior Philip Mayer, under Bryce's supervision, will teach a class in International Diplomacy. Philip will take a historical approach and cover the League of Nations, the UN, the EU, NATO, and the WTO. (What a great opportunity for Philip AND our other students!)

***Upper School parent Philip Gary will offer a class that he is calling Profiles in Courage. He will look at the Civil Rights movement through the study of lives in history, such as Ghandi, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others. Philip plans to welcome guess speakers to this seminar/discussion-based class.

SPORTS THIS WEEK

We have a full week of sports ahead, with away basketball games on Monday at the American Hebrew Academy, and Home games on Tuesday (The Elon School) and Friday (Westchester). We will also host a home swim meet at the Sportsplex in Hillsborough on Thursday at 5:00. Please join us for some of the best free entertainment around!

Have a great week. Only 9 days left of the Winter Term!