DANCING WITH THE STARS!

Our STARS are hard at work learning their routines for this Saturday's exciting performance. You do NOT want to miss the US's first Dancing with the Stars family-friendly fundraiser for our End-of-Year program. Please join us at 7:30pm in the Center this Saturday night. Donations accepted at the door. The nerves are running high!

Week of January 23, 2012

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!! Our first ever DANCING WITH THE STARS will be held in the Center on Saturday, February 4th at 7:30pm. The "professionals" are Annie's advanced dancers who are choreographing the dances. Our STARS are CFS staff members. In the pictures below, you can see Anthony, Willy, and Jim Henderson learning some new steps. Anthony looks very serious as he learns the waltz from Kyle and Celeste. Willy will be hip hopping with Jolene and Audrey, while Jim is doing an old soft shoe with Jessica and Erin. Our judges, techies, and emcees are also made up of staff/student combinations. You do not want to miss this family-friendly fundraiser for our End-of-Year program.


































We are still basking in our memories of a wonderful visit with Joan Mulholland, former Freedom Rider, Kashif Powell and Doug Bynum, Parchman Hour actors. Following the MLK Jr. Day celebration some of our staff and students enjoyed lunch and a most interesting discussion with our guests.





BASKETBALL
Are you looking for cheap entertainment? Come on out to CFS Friday night for some exciting basketball! Starting at 4pm, the boys JV team will play Westchester, followed by girls Varsity at 5:30, and boys Varsity at 7:00. Last Friday, we had a great crowd at Lower School night. Let's see if we can get an even bigger crowd this week to cheer for our teams.

GALAPAGOS MOVIE NIGHT
The Galapagos Islands EOY trip is sponsoring the first of 2 movie night fundraisers this Friday following the home basketball games. The Varsity boys team plays at 7pm. I'm guessing the movie will start at 8:45-9:00. Movie title and entrance fee will be announced to students on Monday.

TEACHER ASSESSMENTS
Our Student Ambassadors class orchestrated a written teacher assessment by students this past week. Each one of our students completed a written evaluation of every teacher. The evaluations cover Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction, Evaluation and Assessment. I am now in the midst of reading through every evaluation as I prepare to pass them on to the teachers. We so appreciate the seriousness and thoughtfulness that our students put into these evaluations AND the willingness of our teachers to be open to student feedback. Student empowerment is an important part of our educational process.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK! STAY HEALTHY. OUR ABSENTEE LIST IS GROWING.

Week of January 16, 2012

Randall's Friends Course Seminar class enjoyed a movie night last Friday at Randall and Lisa's farm. Before having dinner and seeing Inception, they did some farm work and played some music out on the porch. One of the topics they are studying is the Science Behind Dreaming. They have been reading and discussing the science of dreams in preparation for their movie night. Looks like they had a great time!











Jon's Geography class is studying mapping. They did an interesting activity where Jon chose a specific place on campus and asked his students to map the area. As you can see, they placed each of their maps on the floor, walked around, discussed and compared their maps. It was an interesting discussion about point of view, time and place. More to come about this project which involves Jon's students working on maps with the Durham Early School students.

BIG CELEBRATION MONDAY! I HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE GYM AT 10:30 am FOR OUR ANNUAL MLK JR. DAY CELEBRATION.

MLK Jr. Drumming Ensemble and Choir Rehearsals

The first Drumming Ensemble rehearsal is Wednesday from 5-7 in the Middle School. The next Gospel Choir rehearsal is Thursday from 5:30-7:00 in the Center. All are welcome! Come and make a joyful noise!

MLK Jr. Day celebration opportunities

I hope you are getting excited about the CFS MLK Jr. Day celebration on January 16th. There are many opportunities to get involved. As you may know, Joan Mulholland, one of the Freedom Riders, will be our keynote speaker. The theme for this year is Remembering the Past, Engaging the Present. In preparation for the MLK Jr. Day celebration, we will be showing the documentary Freedom Riders: Could You Get on the Bus? on Sunday afternoon, January 8, at 1:30 in the Meeting Hall. All are invited and welcome to attend. Veteran filmmaker Stanley Nelson's inspirational documentary is the first feature-length film about this courageous band of civil-rights activists. We showed this film to the Upper School community in November. It is excellent! We hope you can join us. If you are singing in the MLK Jr. Day community choir, you should be able to attend this viewing and make it to choir practice. Please see below for rehearsal times for the Gospel Choir and the Community Drumming Ensemble. All ages are welcome to each of these groups.

Community Choir rehearsals will be held: Thursday

Jan. 5th 5:30-6:30,

Sunday Jan. 8th 5:30-7,

Thursday Jan. 12th 5:30-7.

The Community Drum Ensemble will rehearse:

Wednesday Jan. 11th 5-7:00,

Friday Jan. 13th 5-7:00.

We will hold a final group rehearsal for all performers on Sunday, January 15th in the

gym from 5-7.