Math with Anne Tally
The math students have been busy reviewing and pretesting. Many have completed this phase and have begun working in their respective textbooks. Overall, pretest results have shown good retention and I am pleased with their hard work.
Science with Lori Hilliard
Chemistry:
The Chemistry students have been focused on review and pretesting and well as laboratory work and skills assessment. The class is very dynamic and has the potential to do great things.
Human Biology:
The Human Biology class has completed review and pretesting as well as an intense microscope laboratory assignment. The students have done a wonderful job of moving into an upper level science course and proving their abilities.
Biology:
The Biology class has finished review and pretesting, microscopy and we have kicked off our leaf collections. Students have been collecting and identifying leaves from around the Camelot campus.
Environmental Science:
The Environmental Science class has completed review and pretesting successfully. We have begun our discussion of the various biomes on earth and the class as a whole promises to have some great debates this semester.
Physical Science with Daniel Hill
Physical Science students began the module with review activities, including all of the required parts of a laboratory report. We also completed our pretesting and began the unit on graphing.
English with Jill Sugg
First, congratulations to last year's Advanced Placement Literature students who had a 93% passing rate on the College Board Test in May. Scores came in during July and I could not be more proud of them all! We have spent this module pretesting and reconnecting with our summer reading in a meaningful way. Seventh Graders discussed Fahrenheit 451 and wrote in connection with Of Mice and Men and "A Raisin in the Sun" after viewing both films. Advanced 8/9 English students covered "The Crucible" and To Kill a Mockingbird, seeing both films and writing on both works. Regular level English 8/9 covered "The Crucible" and Ethan Frome. English 10,11, 12 discussed Brave New World and saw the film version of Ethan Frome. Advanced Placement Composition discussed Brave New World and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Everyone had to write at least 2 papers during pretesting. I am looking forward to a really productive and inspiring year.
History with Matt Wilhelm
The focus in all history classes during Module 1 has been looking at the "big picture" in order to provide context for what we will be encountering during the year. In US History and World History, we defined history as a process of examining and interpreting evidence from the past, as opposed to a list of facts, names, and dates to be memorized. AP Government students got a taste of the AP exam by completing sample multiple choice and essay questions. In addition, the AP students examined some of the political philosophies that underlie the American system of government. Civics students have examined democracy as a system of government and the inherent dilemmas that come with such a system. Current Events students, meanwhile, discussed the importance of keeping up with current events, particularly in a democratic society, and began looking in-depth at the presidential race.
Spanish with Celia Battle
Spanish I - We have spent this module pretesting and reviewing Middle Grades Spanish. Classroom format and expectations have been clearly explained and demonstrated. Students are learning the names and roles of the main characters in our new program, Destinos.
Spanish II - We have spent this module pretesting and reviewing vocabulary and grammar from Spanish I. Students have shown good retention of last year's material and understand that they are expected to speak only Spanish in class. We have begun reading a short novel about a contemporary school girl and have acted out scenes from the story.
Spanish III - We have spent this module pretesting and reviewing vocabulary and grammar from Spanish II. Students have been challenged to speak only Spanish in class. They are reading a short novel about an American high school boy who goes to work with the poor in El Salvador and have acted out the scenes from the story.
Spanish IV - We have spent this module pretesting and reviewing grammar and vocabulary from Spanish III. Class members have taken turns reviewing and explaining verb tenses and their use. Students are reading a variety of short stories dealing with culture, customs, daily life and the correct use of grammar and punctuation. We have had lively discussions of these stories, in Spanish, of course.
Art with Heather Cramer
We had a very exciting beginning to our year with the delivery of a life-size statue of a horse to be painted for the NC State Fair. The 10th/11th grade spent a class period sketching ideas and we blended those into a cohesive design to represent Camelot and the fair theme. A group of 12 Upper School students also worked as often as they could during lunch and after school... a very dedicated and creative team! We finished "Merlin" a day early. He will be judged along with entries from 19 other Triangle area schools. The winner will be announced at noon, Monday, October 13th at the State Fair. See the Camelot website for photos.
9th graders helped with the horse project, but we were also able to do a hand mandala exercise... reenergizing our creativity for this year! Because I will see 9th grade twice a week, I am excited about developing more involved projects with them. In our last class, we talked about expressing emotion through art - looking at the work of several famous artists over the ages. Their creative challenge is to produce a 3D painting which will portray one of the many human emotions.
7th and 8th graders also did the creative hand mandala exercise, then moved on to a project which was inspired by the face cards in a deck of cards. Each student was asked to examine those designs, and then create a card about themselves. The challenge was to have it look like a face card, but to let the top and mirrored bottom represent two different aspects of their personalities. As always, an amazing spectrum of ideas has emerged!
Physical Education with Krista Moll
I've been very pleased with the amount of energy and motivation the students bring to each class. It makes working them hard easy to do! In Module One, all classes did fitness testing. Collectively, I evaluate the students' physical fitness by looking at their endurance, strength, balance, flexibility, agility, and other fitness components. More specifically, they have completed the President's Challenge involving V-sit reach, shuttle run, 1 mile run, curl-ups, and push-ups. Next week, they should be bringing home their physical fitness file with that information in addition to their height, weight, and BMI (body mass index). If you would like to learn more about the President's Challenge, you can go to www.presidentschallenge.org.
When it rained, I taught a health lesson on the benefits of physical activity and the obstacles people face when trying to lead a healthy life. So, yes, PE does require note-taking sometimes!
Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach
There has been a lot of interest in the Band Class (or Music Performance) this year. We have decided to split the class into two groups, meeting on alternate days. I sent a schedule home with the students last week. It's a bit confusing, since each group meets M-W-F of one week, and then Tu-Th of the next, but it is the best way to give each class the attention they need.
In the first couple of weeks we have been getting to know each other, finding out what kinds of music the students like, what skills they would like to improve, and how well they can play with a group. We have also shifted a few students from one group to another, to better balance the abilities and needs of the students, and to create a good mix of instruments and voices in each class. I feel that we have a good balance in each of the classes for the time being.
Class A consists of:
- Rita Glynn (vocals, percussion)
- Eva Sutton (vocals, percussion)
- Josh Stallings (piano)
- Sarah Chetty (piano)
- Aaron Daniels (piano)
- Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach (guitar, vocals)
- Edwin Leskin (bass)
- David Achin (drumset)
Class B consists of:
- Amy Hillsman (vocals)
- Kriea Giffin-Dean (vocals)
- Grace Kirkpatrick (violin, vocals)
- Brian Powell (piano)
- Max Fried (piano)
- Alec Porter (guitar)
- Elaine Parker (drumset)
Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson
The students have been enthusiastic participants in all of the theater exercises we have done. The emphasis has been on "given circumstances", and the importance of giving the character a full "biography". The use of pictures from magazines as prompts for improvisational work was a great success. The introduction of props for improvisational work, also aided the creative process. We will continue to work on scene study, as well as monologues. I will begin to videotape performances to give visual feedback to the students. Some of the material covered so far:
- Specific exercises to improve memory
- Handouts on Obectives in Acting, Theater vocabulary, and Given Circumstances
- Discussion of Given Circumstances
- Exercises utilizing the "Open Scene" format which uses few words or sentences, challenging creativity, team work, and the ability to think "outside the box."
- Props, and pictures were introduced to use in improvisational exercises.
Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn
The seniors meet for a period each day to work on college related topics. Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday they have ACT prep instruction from the Princeton Review. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we sometimes have in college reps (to date Drew University, Macalester College and Guilford College), sometimes work on our college lists and sometimes complete ACT homework. Next week the seniors hit the road on college visits and when they return we will delve into the college application process.
High School students of all ages have participated in the college rep visits. In addition, Upper School students have been making presentations in Morning Meeting about all of the wonderful summer programs they attended.
