Week of April 27, 2009

PROM: Saturday, May 2, from 9-1 in the Meeting Hall, which will be transformed into The Arabian Nights. Tickets are $20/each (most schools charge $50-$75), which will go to cover the cost of decorations, dj, and refreshments. Students may bring one guest from outside CFS and must buy their tickets before Saturday. Once they arrive at the Prom, they may not leave and return. They will either stay for the evening or leave for the evening. Students do NOT need to have a date! Many of our students will go in groups. Some kids will come on their own. Dress is the choice of each individual--dressy, informal, or Halloween costume! We hope this Prom will be a fun evening for all. (Parents are welcome to sneak in to see the decorations, but you may not stay long!)

US CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS: Thursday, April 30, from 6-8pm. US families are invited to contribute to a potluck dinner for our families, staff, and MS riser families. Amelia's 1st period class has planned a fun evening, complete with live and recorded music, poetry, art displays, t-shirts for sale, photography, and scenes from Footloose. They held a t-shirt design contest. Below, you can see the winning designs: Jonas is holding Xin's design, and the black t-shirt on the left is Jessye's creation. Congratulations to these talented artists! The money raised through the sale of t-shirts will go cover expenses for this evening and into the Art budget. I have also included photos of Kyle's corn husk doll and Tamsen's acrylic painting. We hope you can join us for fun and fellowship...and to welcome new MS riser families to our community.

Artist extraordinaire...Hannah at work.

ADVISEE DAY

Monday, April 27, is Advisee Day in the Upper School. Advisee groups have planned a variety of activities that include trips to the beach, Bald Head Island, and Adventure Landing. We will not have classes on Monday. All groups will be off campus. Classes will resume on Tuesday.

2009-2010 CLASSES

Next Friday, May 1, we will begin registering for fall term classes for next year. We will send students home with our new class schedule. Course description books will be available by request. We have some new and exciting classes that you might want to check out: Bryce's Roman World, Gus's Brasilian Culture, Shane and I will co-teach a class on Hitchcock, Susan's Women Authors of the 1950's, Susan's Feminism is not a 4-letter word (women authors of the 1970's), Susan's Newton Grove Documentary, Jamie's History of Romance, and Tim's Homosexualtiy and Religion. I am very excited about our course offerings for next year.

Just a reminder that the final performances of FOOTLOOSE will be presented this weekend. Congratulations to our cast, crew, and band who are all looking forward to getting some badly needed sleep. As I look out my window at the vibrant shades of green that have filled in winter's spaces, I thought I might include Carl Sandburg's Spring Grass...

Spring grass, there is a dance to be danced for you.

Come up, spring grass, if only for young feet.

Come up, spring grass, young feet ask you.

Smell of the young spring grass,

You're a mascot riding on the wind horses.

You came to my nose and spiffed me. This is your lucky year.

Young spring grass just after the winter,

Shoots of the big green whisper of the year,

Come up, if only for young feet.

come up, young feet ask you.

Enjoy the green!

FOOTLOOSE!!

Loads of fun and family friendly! Involving over 50 Upper School students in the cast, dancers, band, and tech crew.

Musical numbers that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you want to get up and

dance! "Let's Make Believe We're in Love."

Sorry for the blur on these young-at-heart cast members.

Tickets are selling fast.

Performances:

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 23-25, at 7:30pm in the Center.

$8 for a chair seat, $5 for a floor seat.

Tickets will be on sale in front of the Center at 8am Monday morning. Call Willy Rotella to check for availability. (x-226)

Open dress rehearsal, Tuesday, April 21 at 7:30pm.

We hope you can make it! "Almost Paradise!"

Week of April 13, 2009

CFS jammers: Spencer, Tim Wells, Kelsey, and Jamie.

Thanks to the Shakori Hills Music Festival, which will be held this weekend, we were able to host 2 musical events at the Upper School. A popular band from Asheville, stephaniesid, played out on the patio during lunch on Thursday. Our very own Daniel Fields (curly hair on left) played a couple of numbers with them. Daniel plays with Old 86, a wonderful band made up of a talented group of CFS sophomores (Chris Stevens Brown, Joe MacPhail, Mie Hirschfield, Neal Demsey and Daniel Fields). Old 86 will also be playing at Shakori Hills on Friday afternoon. On Friday, we welcomed back CFS grad ('75) Jim Lauderdale who is a Grammy-winning singer, song writer. Jim played a couple of songs with CFS staff member and graduate, Tim Wells. Jim is also playing at Shakori Hills. We were thrilled to be able to welcome these musicians and enjoy their amazing talents!

Susan's Literature of War class welcomed Nasim Fekrat, an Afghan journalist who has been studying at Duke. Nasim is part of a generation of young men and women who have grown up knowing nothing but war and violence. His life was changed when he met a Sufi mystic. He learned about the idea of "pure humanity" not tied to any specific religion. "You have to find out how much you are beautiful in your inside. No one is bad." This Sufi mystic opened up another world for Nasim. He now writes a blog about life in Afghanistan: http://www.afghanlord.org/ Nasim was a fascinating young speaker.

Internationally known photographer, Nick Kelsh, was on campus this week, photographing staff and students for future CFS brochures and informational materials. On Thursday, Nick gave a presentation on Photography for Amelia's photography students and other interested staff and students. Nick is an energetic and engaging speaker...and an amazing photographer. He was most generous with his time and his willingness to share life lessons that he has learned along the way.

2009-2010 CLASS SCHEDULE

The US staff is presently finalizing our class schedule for next year. We will print a new Course Description book by the end of next week and begin registering students for the fall term by the week of April 27. As always, parents are encouraged to play an active roll in the registration process. Advisors are responsible for keeping track of their advisees' graduation credits. We hope to complete this process by the last day of classes--Friday, May 8.

FINAL EXAMS AND BEYOND

Monday, May 11, is Reading Day. At 9am, all End of Year groups (off campus, on campus, local, and internships) will meet. Throughout the rest of the day, we will schedule review sessions for a variety of classes. This schedule will be completed by Wednesday of next week. At that time, the Final Exam schedule will be published. Final exams and project presentations are planned for Tuesday-Thursday, May 12-14. Friday, May 15, is a staff workday for End-of-Term report writing. Monday, May 18, is a staff workday to prepare for End-of-Year experiences. Schedules for End-of-Year trips and projects vary widely from experience to experience and will be communicated by the leader of each group.

Time is flying by very quickly. Footloose is just around the corner. Have you bought your tickets? Have a great week!

NCAIS Conference and Junior Retreat

OK, so I said I wouldn't be blogging for 2 weeks...not until after spring break, and this is my 2nd blog since making that erroneous statement. There's just too much going on with US students. I have to share it! On Sunday afternoon, we took 18 US students and 4 MS students to the North Carolina Assoc. of Independent Schools' annual Student Diversity and Leadership Conference. As is always the case, I was so proud of our students. They were actively engaged from start to finish. You can see photos here of Jazmun and Shane meeting new friends. I also included a shot of Jon and his African American History class as his students led a workshop entitled Teach Me Tolerance. With Jon sitting in the back of the room, his students were in charge. They were knowledgeable, respectful, and well organized. They did an excellent job of listening to and engaging with each other and the adults and students who attended their session, some of whom had strong feelings to share. This workshop really was the best possible example of student-led learning!

Last night (Tuesday), I had the honor of joining the junior class at Quaker Lake for their junior retreat. Once again, I was proud of their accomplishments and excited about their hopes and dreams for their senior year. In the photos above, you can see Bob cooking hamburgers, Marley and Xiaona roasting marshmallows, Emily creating Henna tattoos, and the entire class discussing plans for next year. Chloe and Esther led a discussion on leadership, which was thoughtful, honest, and spot on. We all agreed that the juniors don't have a choice about whether or not they will be leaders. They do have a choice about the ways in which each of them chooses to lead. I came away from this retreat excited about our leadership possibilities for next year, eagerly anticipating positive changes that this class has envisioned...and just a little tired!

2 days until spring break...not that I'm counting. Have a restful and wonderful break with your families.