Week of October 12, 2009

Our fall advisee day proved to be a day of service for many groups. Not pictured here are Bob's group who blazed trails near West Point on the Eno, Tim & Sherri's group who worked at Welcome Baby in downtown Durham, and Elise's group who baked cookies all morning and delivered them to a variety of locations during the afternoon. Below, you can see some of our groups in action. Willy's group painted the bathrooms in the old building, complete with silver stars, moons, and suns. Very pretty!
Frances's group pounded in fence posts for a new fence to protect Frances's orchard alongside the baseball field.

Ken's group tackled a huge pile of mulch, which they distributed to the area between the Meeting Hall, the Resource Building, and the old building. What a difference!

Dave's group had a full-blown cookout, complete with burgers, bacon, and grilled onions. Even for a vegetarian like myself, those burgers looked and smelled pretty good. (No, I did NOT eat one!)

Senior Night at a volleyball game honored our senior players: Esther, Chloe, Sarah, and Emily.

Terry's Woodworking students are hard at work in the shop.

Chemistry test in action.

At this point, we are exactly halfway through the fall term. Papers are due this week in a variety of classes, and many tests/quizzes will be given. Student progress is being monitored and evaluated in preparation for Parent Conferences.

PARENT CONFERENCES

On Wednesday, October 21st, the staff will meet for the entire day to share information on every student. We will hold a Round Robin so that each staff member can meet with every other staff member. Information is shared with Advisors to prepare them for meeting with parents. Thursday and Friday, October 22-23, are set aside for parent conferences. We ask our parents to honor the fact that this time is designated for parents to meet with their child's advisor so they can receive pertinent information with regard to their child's progress in classes as well as participation in the Upper School community and advisee group. This is a great time for parents to come with questions and/or concerns. On behalf of the US staff, I encourage parents to make use of these days and not to ask advisors to re-schedule. Thank you in advance for working with us to make the best possible use of these Parent Conference time.

PSAT

The PSAT will begin at 8am on Wednesday morning in the Meeting Hall. We encourage students to get a good night's sleep and have a good breakfast. They should arrive at 8am with two #2 pencils, a calculator, and their Social Security number.

JUNIOR NIGHT

All juniors and parents of juniors are invited to Junior Night, Wednesday (Yes, a busy day for juniors!) from 7-9pm in the Meeting Hall. Our speakers are directors of admissions from UNC-Chapel Hill and from Guilford College in Greensboro. Elise will also talk about the college process at CFS. This is an important evening for junior families. Bring your questions!

CSI

A new group is born in the Upper School: the Celebrate Student Identity group. This group has grown out of the Essence affinity group for students of color. The CSI is open to all students and will be supervised by MS staff member Toni Williams and our own Jon Lepofsky. Some of our best ideas often come from students. I think this may be one of them.

I will close with the opening lines of Afreya's poem entitled

"Heritage"

I'm an African Jamaican and those are my roots

I'm a Guyanese African and that's the whole truth

I'm a Brooklynite in Durham and this is my proof

That everyone has a heritage and needs to learn it--no excuse

As I sit back and think about the lines that I'm writing

Barack is sitting, thinking how to solve problems without fighting

And a black kid is learning more and feeling enlightened

We have come a long way from the hoses and the biting...

What an opening! Thank you, Afreya.