Math with Anne Tally
Math students have completed most of their pretesting and are well under way in their respective courses. Those in the new Algebra book acclimated themselves to the course with a unit on fractals that culminated in their own creations now posted on the classroom wall. Precalculus students are learning to use an online component that gives them instant feedback on their homework. Other students, revisiting basic skills, are also using an online quizzing and testing program quite successfully.
Science with Lori Hilliard
Chemistry: We have completed our introductory study of the structure of the atom and formula writing. The students are great as a team and have made this a fun beginning to the year.
Human Biology: The study of classification and cell processes has dominated this unit. Students have enjoyed many laboratory activities including an osmosis/diffusion lab that made them all think about eggs in an entirely new light.
Biology: Classification, cell structure and botany have been the focus of the class this unit. Students also worked on their leaf collections.
Environmental Science: Students have been studying biomes and factors that contribute to the study of ecosystems. They have improved their graphing skills this module and worked to improve research methods.
Physical Science with Daniel Hill
Physical Science students have been finishing the unit on graphing and completed their final graphing projects over conferences week.
English with Jill Sugg
Seventh Graders read Paul Zindel's adolescent novel The Pigman. Revisiting summer reading selections, English 8/9 covered The Great Gatsby and 8/9 Advanced covered The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. English 10, 11, 12 did a unit on British classics with excerpts from Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and "Paradise Lost." Lastly, Advanced Placement Composition revisited one of their summer novels, Catch 22.
History with Matt Wilhelm
Civics: Students examined the financial crisis and debated various public policies that have been proposed to deal with its consequences. We also began examining political ideology as a prelude to our unit on electoral politics.
World History: We pondered some of the great questions of human existence with the Ancient Greeks. Students encountered the Socratic method via Plato's discussion of virtue in The Meno, examined Plato's ideas about the ideal political system in The Republic, and looked at Aristotle's thoughts on democracy in The Politics.
US History: Students learned about the origins of slavery, and encountered the philosophical beliefs that provided the foundation for the American Revolution.
AP Government: We discussed The Constitution in-depth, and looked at some of the complexities of a federal system of government.
Current events: Students learned how to break down arguments into premises and conclusions, and evaluated specific arguments on that basis. Students also learned to differentiate between fact-based and values-based arguments.
Spanish with Celia Battle
Spanish I — We have started the Destinos series, mastered initial vocabulary and grammar and learned the roles of the main characters in Episodes 1 and 2. Students are intrigued as the plot begins to unfold and they find out more facts about this engaging family drama that takes place in various parts of the Hispanic world.
Spanish II — This class continues to move forward and students are motivated to increase their conversational skills in Spanish. We are having fun reading a brief contemporary novel about Ana, a Latin American high school student, and talking in Spanish about individual projects for Academic Fair. Irregular verbs have been introduced as well as affirmative and negative pronouns.
Spanish III — Students in this class have memorized and mastered irregular verbs in six tenses, which is a challenge they have met with tenacity and hard work. I am very pleased with their efforts. We are continuing to read a brief novel in Spanish about the adventures of a high school boy who has to meet high expectations set by his parents in order to be allowed to have his first car. A great deal of animated classroom discussion has taken place based on this amusing story.
Spanish IV — Students in Spanish IV are enthusiastic and determined to increase their communication skills. This class has participated in discussions about a variety of readings, debated topics of interest, written creative paragraphs and completed the first chapter of the college text they are studying. They are challenging one another to go to the next level and they are succeeding rapidly.
Art with Heather Cramer
9th grade students have begun work on the "Emotions 3D" project. Each selected a human emotion or condition to portray in a 3D relief painting. Other Upper School classes have been working on a piece called "What's In Your Cards?" These works express two aspects of the student's personality in the form of a playing card. They are on display in the hall gallery. More will be added.
9th–11th grades "Specials" day was a folk art adventure—considering the whimsical side of art. Each student painted an image of a character on a picket fence piece with movable arms. There is some final work to be done before they are assembled and attached to the fence leading into the younger children's playground. Be prepared to smile!
Physical Education with Krista Moll
In P.E. class we started with a volleyball unit. We covered volleyball history, rules, how to play, and fundamental techniques (like bumping and setting). There was a pretest before conferences and this week they will take a written post test as well as a skills test. I've been very impressed with the improvement I've seen so far. The goal of these units is not to produce "stars," but to help students become familiar with the basics of each game so they can comfortably participate in these sports outside of school.
As most of you are aware, our Fit for Life program started September 29th. Every Monday homeroom teachers will be distributing new activity logs and collecting the signed and completed logs of the previous week. Upper School students should have returned two weeks worth of logs this Monday. The Fit for Life thermometer is now hanging up in the Big Hall and will be updated every week or so. Thank you all for helping make this program work.
Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach
Musical and improvisational skills are improving, risks are being taken, beautiful harmony is being achieved, and a clearer path is emerging for the content for the rest of the semester.
I purchased a new book, Beatles: The Complete Scores, which has every song they recorded, written out, part by part, like an orchestral score. Both classes began work on an arrangement of "You Won't See Me." This shows students how it was done by The Beatles, while allowing them to add their own personal style. In the "B" class, Grace put down her violin and joined Kriea and Amy for some wonderful harmonies on "You Won't See Me," as well as "Birthday." In the "A" class, Edwin and Lennon tried those falsetto-style harmonies. We also initiated "jam sessions" on riffs in Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" and "Kashmir" (in "A" class only), and Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower." As I mentioned at the Parent's Night, my goal is to help the more classically-trained kids feel comfortable with improvisation, while showing the more ear-taught kids how to read notes and chords from the page.
On the equipment front, we received 2 keyboards from Dan Lanphear and the Hillsman family. Now the keyboard players in both classes will not have to share a keyboard, or have to "wait their turn" to play. We are very grateful for the generosity of these families.
I took advantage of the Upper School Conference break to create more arrangements specific to the class, test out the new keyboards, and continue to work on making our shared space as comfortable as possible.
Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson
We have continued to work on "given circumstances" using improvisational prompts. The students have truly begun to understand the concept. The emphasis, in the exercises, is to create a "biography," for the character, and then to portray that character as realistically as possible.
The 10th and 11th grade class was given monologues to memorize and perform. This lesson will continue for the next few sessions. Students will have their presentations video taped.
I also tape classes as a baseline, to show students' progress.
Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn
The seniors are nearing the completion of their ACT class and will take their final practice test this weekend. Most of the Class of 09 spent part of conference week on the road visiting potential colleges. It was wonderful to hear their excitement about the schools they visited when we went out to lunch together this Monday.
The 10th and 11th graders will be at school this weekend to take the PSAT test. Thanks, in advance, to Ms Celia for her help administering these tests.
