Mathematics with Jenny Feaster
We are 4 weeks into the new semester, and students have been working hard to keep up with their paces in math. February 24th, students have the option of taking the AMC (American Mathematics Contest) Grade 10 test. This contest is a test with 25 questions that is administered in 75 minutes. It contains problems that cover topics through pre-calculus. Please note calculators are not allowed on the test. Several students have expressed interest in the contest and will be taking it on the 24th.
English with Jill Sugg
Advanced Placement Literature read Nabokov's Lolita, focusing in particular upon the narrative technique of unreliable narration. Their take home test required them to analyze the author's use of foil characters and motifs as well as those psychological aspects that make Humbert Humbert so pitifully deranged and so fascinating. AP students also read "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles for AR.
Advanced 8/9 and English 7/8/9 read Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas, a cult favorite in popular culture in the last decade, and wrote a five paragraph essay on the author's use of humor, poignancy, and suspense. Advanced 8/9 read Judith Guest's Ordinary People for AR and saw the Academy Award winning film directed by Robert Redford.
All classes began a poetry unit which will continue to be interspersed with our next major works. Classic and modern poetry are blended with a focus on total meaning, figurative language, poetic structure, and an appreciation for the art of putting our feelings on paper in a way that others can relate to.
English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm
American History: We have been looking at the Civil War, examining its direct and indirect causes, important decisions made by both the Union and the Confederacy and their impacts, and the war's legacy.
Civics: In the wake of the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts, we have been examining voter behavior and the factors that drive it. We have also started an in-depth look at political psychology.
Current Events: Students in this class have also been looking at electoral politics, albeit from a more elementary perspective. Students have learned about the electoral process, voter behavior, and the importance of money in politics.
English 10/11/12: We have read and discussed Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Students will follow this book with Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation to get a more modern perspective on psychological struggle.
World History: We have examined the Scientific Revolution, the Protestant Reformation, and the impact of John Locke's ideas on the liberalization of governments during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Science with Lori Hilliard
Environmental Science: Rock formation and identification have been the focus of the last module. Students conquered these topics using hands on investigation. It has been a "rocky" start to the new semester.
Human Biology: Muscle ID and an understanding of the muscular system have been very exciting in this class. Students have enjoyed learning about their movements and how it relates to their favorite sports. Dissection of the chicken wing was also a highlight of this module.
Chemistry: The students have been blown away by our study of the Gas Laws. Proving the molar weight of a gas experimentally was a slight challenge and remembering all 8 formulas needed for the exam was a bigger challenge. Both were successfully conquered by this great group of chemists.
Biology: The conclusion of our study of Genetics has led this class into many great debates and has produced some very educational brochures about inherited disorders. I am very proud of the efforts of this group.
Physics with Dan Hill
The Physics students, now liberally glazed with the joint concepts of work and energy, are examining the workings of simple machines (levers, inclined planes, gears, pulleys, thumbscrews, etc.).
Spanish with Celia Battle
Introduction to Spanish—I am quite pleased that this class has worked very hard to learn stem-changing verbs in the present tense and they know how to use these in class. We have had many verb drills to help reinforce these new concepts. Students continue to follow the Destinos main character as she goes to Argentina in her next adventure to try to solve the family mystery.
Spanish 2—Students continue to increase their use of vocabulary and verbs as well as positive and negative indefinite words. They have begun to read about pre-Hispanic Mexico and to learn about the indigenous peoples that lived in that area. Class discussions focus on this topic as the students demonstrate their ability to apply their readings in classroom conversations.
Intermediate Spanish—Students continue to have daily discussions in Spanish about current events. They have increased their ability to communicate about topics pertinent to life today, world news and school matters. I am very proud that this class has taken a leadership role in an all school fundraiser for Haitian relief. Students are planning, organizing and running these creative events themselves with minimal adult supervision.
Advanced Spanish–This class has been reading AP excerpts from Hispanic literature. They are studying vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, literary devices and the use of a variety of verb tenses, both in fiction and non-fiction samples. Daily conversations continue to generate lively and challenging discussions of current events, personal anecdotes and a variety of topics of interest to the class.
Physical Education with Krista Moll
We have stayed pretty consistent with alternating upper body, lower body, abdominals/lower back, and jogging and conditioning each fitness class. With the cold weather and the snow, it has been a little difficult staying on task. However, they have been a great bunch of students and have stayed positive regardless of the weather!
Art with Brittain Peck
Module 6 opened with the introduction of a new extensive lesson in printmaking, in particular relief printmaking seen through the lens of poster design. The students were first introduced to the idea and practice of relief printmaking through the creation, design, and printing of Styrofoam printing blocks. We then moved into the stage of conceptual development in which the students were encouraged to explore their interests and concerns through the process of designing a visual voice to their ideas. We looked at the use and design of posters during and after the Cuban Revolution, focusing on the relationship between ideas and visual design, the use of bold colors and graphic shapes, and the use and incorporation of text as a visual object. The students then worked to create thumbnail sketches of their designs to move closer towards their final compositions. We then recreated these small designs as scale layouts, using cut colored paper, rather than markers of colored pencils, to prioritize the students' understanding of the relationship to shape and color in their compositions. At this point, the students took part in a mid-level critique to provide the students with an opportunity to gain facility and confidence in discussing their work and creative process with their peers. This mid-level critique marked the end of Art for many of the students as we transitioned into the new Upper School elective schedule. Those students who have continued with Art have begun to take the next steps towards producing their poster designs as multi-color woodblock prints. As the first step in this process, the students have begun the process of color separation, and in doing so, are gaining hands-on experience in the fundamental processes of print production.
Music with Daniel Raimi
Upper grades worked on a few things this module. We finished our recordings of "Should I Stay or Should I Go," and students will get their own copies of the songs within a week or two. Our next step was to focus on writing and understanding traditional musical notation. Students were given worksheets and asked to identify and write specific patterns of notes and rhythms. We studied notes ranging from the "A" below "middle C" up to an "A" above the treble clef staff, and rhythms ranging from whole notes to sixteenth notes, including quarter note and eighth note rests. After going through the worksheets, students were asked to write a short piece of music, which I then performed on guitar. We had a slight challenge, which was that if any student could write a piece of music that I was unable to play, they would win a cookie. After some revisions and plenty of huffing and puffing, we had a few cookie-winners, and I had a blast playing the students' pieces.
We also began work on a series of "ear training" exercises, where students listen to short musical phrases and have to identify the specific melodic notes and rhythms used in the phrase. They then write down the musical phrase, training their ears to hear certain patterns in music. We also went through a series of chords: Major, Minor, Diminished and Augmented, working to simply hear a chord and identify it's type. The students showed a strong ability to distinguish between the different sounds, and should soon have "ears of steel," as we say in the music-nerd world.
Drama with Roni Peterson
During Module 6, the Upper Grades continued with improvisation exercises. Comic strips were handed out and groups were formed to write original scripts based on the comic strips. Each student was to take on a character that was in the strip and to embellish it into a short scene. It certainly was interesting to see how they were able to work as a group in writing a script, and to take on the characters.
Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach
CLUB CLASS
Between a late start to the year because of the ski trip, snow days, and regular school holidays, Module 6 meant a little less than 3 weeks of sessions this year. But we got a lot accomplished in that short amount of time. We polished up some old songs, and began learning a whole batch of new ones. Before winter break I asked the students their preferences about songs to sing, and how to sing them. They said they'd like to have individual solos as well as group singing songs. So we began by featuring Sophie Reiter on "The Way I Am." Sophie surprised us all with the quality and volume of her singing, and I hope that confidence extends to everything she sings with the group. We also started working on "Waitin' On The World To Change," featuring guitarist Alec Porter, who only recently expressed an interest in singing for the class. After finding a good key for him, he is really finding his way with the song. Bri Oleson and Lance Wilkes began sharing the lead vocals on "Lean On Me" based on the arrangement by the cast of the TV show Glee. We also continued work on "I Get Around" with the verses sung with gusto by Lance.
Another wonderful development in the class is the willingness of students to try playing different instruments. Rachel Roush, who already has experience with lots of musical instruments, will be featured on piano, percussion, and drum set. Kriea Giffin-Dean is showing herself quite adept at the conga, and is finding her way around the drum set as well. Alec Porter, as I already mentioned, is becoming quite the vocalist as well as our guitarist, not only singing lead, but helping sing back-ups on other songs as well. And Bri has agreed to play key-bass on at least 2 of the songs, which really helps the sound of the group. I hope to hand more of the instrumental chores off to group members in the second semester, and take myself out of mix as a piano player.
I look forward to continuing work on these songs in the next module, and finding more songs for the individual members to shine on. Their willingness to work together, support each other in trying new things, and always try to do their best no matter how large or small their part in a particular song is very inspiring and gratifying.
CREDIT BAND
As with the Club Class, a late start because of the ski trip, snow days, and regular school holidays meant that Module 6 was a little less than 3 weeks of sessions this year. But we made the most of those sessions. Also like the Club Class, I based most of our new material on suggestions from the students. I am happy to have Grace Kirkpatrick back in the class again, after spending her first semester in New York City. We began learning "The Weight" by the Band, with Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach handling most of the lead vocals, with one verse and harmonies by Josh Stallings. After a tentative start, they really seem to be understanding the song, and continue to improve vastly each time we play. We also started on "Never Alone," by one of Sarah Chetty's favorites, Barlow Girl. This song features Sarah on piano, and has a passionate lead vocal that has really brought out new colors in Olivia Arges' voice. Just before the break we began work on "We Are Golden," by Mika, a suggestion from Elisabeth Parker. This is a fun and silly song, but really requires energy and attention to make it work properly. Olivia also needs to show some new aspects of her vocal personality to make this song work. Along with her always wonderful violin playing, Grace has also been singing harmonies for the group this semester, and doing a wonderful job. I look forward to exploring her vocal abilities, and maybe even her keyboard chops, as the semester progresses.
We continue to work on "Roundabout," by Yes, which we began in the first semester. We added a violin part to the arrangement, and rearranged the vocals to compensate for the loss of Viola Samadi, who is not with us this semester. Little by little, this very difficult song is coming together. We also continued work on "One Note Samba" and "Mack the Knife," both which challenge the students to expand their rhythmic sense and improvisational skills.
Speaking of improvisation, that is something we continue to work on, with varying results for each band member. It is an important skill for any musician to have, and I will continue to create opportunities for all of them to expand their abilities in that area.
Lastly, I am determined to have the students write at least one class song in the 2nd semester, and gave them an assignment before the break for conferences of coming up with at least one verse, chorus and lyrics of a song. I look forward to seeing the results.
