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!