Sports Update!

Believe it or not, I have tried to get the boys together for a team picture. Thus far, I have not been successful. Here you can see the girls varsity Conference Champs! Named on the all-conference team: Zoe, Jamilah, Anna, and Jolene. Named Conference Player of the Year: Zoe!! Congratulations to all...and on to the State Tournament. First round is tonight. The boys will play at Fayetteville Christian School in Fayetteville at 6:30pm. The girls play at home at 6pm. Let's all get out to a basketball game tonight!

The State Swim Meet was yesterday. All of our swimmers did well. Nick Lent finished 1st in the 50-yard freestyle and 3rd in the 100-yard freestyle. Congratulations to all of our swimmers!

Senior Forum Staff Dinner

What a delightful evening! Philip's Senior Forum class cooked, served, and cleaned up after a delicious dinner for the US staff. Annie G and Anna Lee baked the delectable flourless chocolate cake that we enjoyed for dessert. (See below) Danusha and Lucas came to school early in the day to rearrange the library as you can see. Nick, Emily, Xixi, Madeline, and Annie D cooked and served the dinner. Here, you can see them cleaning up in the staff room. Those of us in attendance had a wonderful time being waited on by our students. I was able to hire Philip's class for this special evening, as they are raising money for their trip to New York City in March. What a treat!

End of Winter Term!

Our swim team is one of our most endearing and unique CFS sports teams. We may not be the best in the state when it comes to shortest lap times, but I challenge any other team to top our team in the area of caring and supportive athletes who are trying their hardest to shave a few seconds off their time. They are one special group! Congratulations to senior Nick Lent who earned all-conference recognition by finishing first in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events in the conference championship meet. The swim team will travel to the state meet on Monday. Best of luck to our swimmers! (In case you are wondering about these pictures...Some of the players are throwing their coach into the pool.)








On the last day of winter term classes, I was able to join Philip's Urban Design class for their final project presentations. The students were challenged to identify a problem and find an architectural solution. For example, how do you design a school from the inside--out? How do you make the drive around town more interesting? How can you work with nature, rather than destroying nature? I have included here some photos of students making their presentations. Emma designed a kitchen. Alexa created waterways in Chapel Hill to replace the main roads. Asante shared a small village that was a "welcoming and inviting place." In designing her tree house, Jessie wanted to work "in partnership with nature." As you can see, Philip's students created a variety of amazing designs and examples of deep thought. Bravo!












SPRING SYMPOSIUM
The theme for Monday's symposium is Body Care: Adolescent Health and Wellness. We will be showing the film, Miss Representation. If you haven't seen it, check out the trailer on youtube. According to the DVD cover, "Miss Representation uncovers a glaring reality we live with every day but fail to see. The film explores how mainstream media contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions in America and challenges the media's limiting and often disparaging portrayals of women, which make it difficult for the average girl to see herself as powerful." Our workshops during the morning sessions include Body Image, Teens and the Law, Planned Parenthood, Eating Disorders, The Realities of Drug Use, and The Four B's (birth control, birth, babies, and breastfeeding). Following a potluck lunch, all of our students will be involved in physical activities, including Capture the Flag, Yoga, massage, Dodgeball, and fun physical games.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK! STUDENT-LED PARENT CONFERENCES ARE COMING UP.

Lots going on this week!!

Tonight is Senior Night in basketball. Here, you can see the beautiful varsity girls basketball team who will play at 5:30pm. (One picture of just seniors and one of the entire team) The boys (Sorry, we couldn't gather them for a picture) will play at 7pm. The Senior Forum class will be selling Lasagna and Eggplant Parmesan at the concession stand.

Good luck figuring out which picture goes with which announcement. I don't seem to be able to match them up. The IMPROV SHOW (Players are pictured here.) will be presented at 5:30pm on Wednesday (so folks can make it to the Duke/UNC game) and 7:30pm on Thursday in the Meeting Hall.





























The Ethics Bowl team is pictured seated in Jamie's classroom. The Ethics Bowl competition will be held this Saturday at the PARR Center for Ethics on the UNC campus at 9am. All are welcome to attend.

Here are some great pictures of Annie's 1st period dancers learning some arial moves. Looks like they were having fun!

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.