Mathematics with Jenny Feaster
On Friday, March 12th the Upper School students will be celebrating π Day! (3/14, π Day, is really on Sunday). We will celebrate by discussing the origins of the famous number π and eating Pie.
We are about a week and a half away from the spring mid-semester. This is the time for students to focus on the pace for their math course. Students are expected to be halfway through their semester requirements by March 17.
English with Jill Sugg
AP Literature read All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. A field trip to meet with Carter Wrenn, accomplished political campaign director, at his offices has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 10th.
8/9 Advanced and 7/8/9 Regular read classic detective fiction novel The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and saw the 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart.
All classes have been reading poetry from a wide variety of sources.
English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm
American History: Students have encountered the challenges of Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the final stages of American settlers' conflicts with American Indians.
Civics: Students learned about the dynamics of a modern mayoral campaign through the lens of the documentary film Street Fight. In addition, students have begun examining the role of the Supreme Court in American politics.
Current Events: Students have learned about issues related to the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. They have also been evaluating criticisms made of the modern business corporation in the documentary film The Corporation.
English 10/11/12: Students continue to read Prozac Nation while also reading short stories and articles regarding the significance of depression in today's world.
World History: Students have learned about the Industrial Revolution, the "Scramble for Africa," and have moved into the 20th century and the causes of World War I.
Science with Lori Hilliard
Environmental Science: Soil and soil studies have dominated this module. Students have completed many labs ranging from soil identification and permeability testing to culturing bacteria from the soil and identifying it as to type using the microscope and staining techniques. An interesting factoid that students discovered was that an acre of land can contain up to one ton of bacteria.
Human Biology: The cardiovascular system has taken this class straight to the heart of their study of human biology. Students have all successfully completed several laboratory assignments and case studies, and have mastered an exam that would make a college freshman panic.
Chemistry: Organic chemistry has kept this class on the ball this semester. Along with building 3-D models and closely analyzing everyday materials for hydrocarbons, the students constructed edible organic molecules, proving that organic chemistry is not all smelly.
Biology: Microbiology has been the intensive focus of this module. Students have learned to identify bacteria cultures using various staining techniques. Many days were spent mastering certain laboratory procedures that culminated in a practical lab that was very difficult and well done by all.
Physics with Dan Hill
The Physics class has had a rather large unit on work and energy, but that's understandable, because it's energy's changing of form that makes everything happen. After this we will have a short discussion of power, and then it's on to me twisting their arms until they know all there is to know about torque and rotational motion.
Spanish with Celia Battle
Introduction to Spanish—Students are very energized competing in verb tense games. They have learned stem-changing and reflexive verbs in the present tense as well as the use of possessive and demonstrative adjectives. Students have studied Episodes 9, 10, and 11 in Destinos.
Spanish 2—Students have studied the preterite tense and have enjoyed daily verb competitions in class. We continue our study of pre-Hispanic Mexico and have read and discussed this period of time in history as well as the beginning of the colonization period.
Intermediate Spanish—Students have studied in depth the uses of several verbs as well as two of the perfect tenses. They have played verb games and have enjoyed competing against each other to attain mastery of these tenses. Daily classroom discussions in Spanish of topics of interest, news, current events and readings continue to be the focus of this very energetic and enthusiastic class. This motivated group of students planned and organized the Camelot Academy Haiti Fund Drive quite successfully. I am very proud of them!
Advanced Spanish—Students have completed a variety of challenging AP readings. They have studied vocabulary and grammar from these readings and have had daily discussions in Spanish about current events as well as other issues of interest to the class. Students continue to do writing samples about these topics. This is a very cohesive and motivated group of students whose ability to speak Spanish increases every day.
Physical Education with Krista Moll
This semester we are switching it up a little. We will continue to have one day of fitness and one day of games, but on the fitness day, we are focusing on a full body workout. Mostly, I will use circuit training as a means to establish a full body workout. So far, with the incorporation of music, the circuit training has gone very well! I have been impressed with the hard work exerted by the students. As for their game day, each class voted on three to four sports they wanted to play throughout the semester. This last module and the beginning of this month, Ultimate Frisbee is the game of choice. On a final note, I'm excited to say that we will be taking the students to Millenium Fitness Center once a month starting in March. Before we head to Millenium Fitness Center, the students will be creating their own exercise program to work on at the fitness center.
Art with Brittain Peck
The students have made a considerable amount of progress in our study of woodblock preparation, carving, and printing. We began this module by creating high contrast black and white drawings for the specific purpose of reproducing these images as woodblock prints. We then covered a variety of transfer methods to transfer these images from the paper to the surface of the woodblock. These transfer methods included graphite and pressure transfers as well as acetone or chemical xerox transfers. With the images transferred, we had an introduction into the process and technique of cutting the block. The students ended the module in the process of continuing to cut their images into the block in preparation for our upcoming study of the printing process.
Music with Daniel Raimi
The Upper School music elective is off to an excellent start, and I'm excited about the coming semester. We've begun by understanding the basics of music theory. Students discussed and did homework on topics such as: constructing major scales, constructing major and minor chords, understanding and naming intervals and understanding and naming all the different 12 major keys using the circle of fifths. Students have been assigned various tasks in which they write short pieces and then perform them, and I've been enjoying their work very much. We have a wide variety of interests and experience levels in class, so it's going to be a challenge to keep everyone on the same page, but I've asked students to keep me up to date with their experience and opinions on the class. In the coming weeks, we're going to be performing one of Bach's 2-part inventions (#8) on a variety of instruments and students will have the opportunity to make presentations on a piece of music of their choice. Also, we'll continue our work with ear training, identifying intervals, chords, melodies, and rhythmic values.
Drama with Roni Peterson
I am very excited about the Dramatic Arts Elective. We began with the explanation of the material we will be covering during the semester. We begin each of the classes with some sort of group warm-up, be it voice or tone exercises, breathing exercises, or tongue twisters. Each of the students was given a folder for handouts, and a composition book to be used for journaling. I have asked the students to create a character and to journal, as their character, at home or during free time, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. They are required to write at least a paragraph for each entry. The entries should include daily happenings in the life of the character that they chose. They may include other characters in their entries that their own character encounters or interacts with. They could be the character's family, friends, co-workers, etc. I will check their journals every Monday, as this will count as homework. During class, each student introduced themselves and explained why they chose drama as their elective. I then asked them to re-introduce themselves as the character that they had created for their journal. The variety of choices was outstanding! The students really embraced the idea of journaling and I am so pleased with their enthusiasm. We are presently working on a one act play where all of the students have a part. We are focusing on character development. I am pleased with the progress they are making. We will continue with character study during Module 8. The students were given a quiz on theater vocabulary and will be given other tests on film vocabulary, as well as other terms used in the Dramatic Arts. I will be screening two film versions of The Miracle Worker and discuss their differences in direction, acting, lighting, music, etc. We will also be performing portions of the original play The Miracle Worker in class. I am so pleased to have the opportunity to be teaching this particular group of students as they have shown me that they truly want to be in this class by their enthusiasm, effort, class participation, and willingness to learn.
Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach
CLUB CLASS
This module in the Club Class was mainly spent refining and augmenting songs that we started earlier in the year. Substantial progress was made on all fronts. Rachel is sounding terrific on the drums on "I Get Around," and the vocalists are feeling more and more comfortable with the deceptively difficult harmonies. Alec continues to improve as a guitarist and vocalist on "Waiting on the World to Change," and Kriea (with a little help from Sophie on cymbals) is beginning to own the challenging drum part. "Lean On Me" shows significant improvement, both vocally and instrumentally, including terrific solo parts by Lance and Bri, and good concentration on the difficult contrapuntal parts on the bridge section of the song. Multi-instrumentalist Rachel is really finding her way with the piano part. Refinements continue as well on "The Way I Am," with Sophie on lead vocals.
One new song we began this module was John Lennon's "Imagine." We created our own arrangement of this during class, which I later wrote out just for us. There are various class members sharing the lead vocals, singing back-ups, duets, and playing the instrumental parts during the song, and the progress has been quick and solid. I think it will become one of our best numbers.
Lastly, we used some class time for general vocal warm-ups, exploring ways to improve our breathing, posture, vowel formation and harmony singing. I continue to reinforce all these ideas within the context of the songs we are practicing.
CREDIT BAND
This module in Credit Band was a very creative and productive one. We continued to work on existing songs, learned some new ones, and each student composed his or her own song for the class. "Never Alone" and "We Are Golden," both of which we started last module, are now in very good shape, and ready for some final polishing. "The Weight" is also really shaping up. In the absence of Sarah and Lissy one day, we decided to have a "vocal day," in which we worked on harmonies on all of songs that sometimes get neglected while we are working on the instrumental parts. It was a very beneficial day. I introduced the jazz standard "Autumn Leaves," in 4 different versions, which we will be playing in various forms over the next few weeks. The students are playing from "lead sheets" drawn from "fake books," which give only the melody, chord symbols and other minimal rhythmic information, and require the players to come up with the rest. This has been a good challenge for the group, and we will continue to explore the various journeys you can take with this song in the future, which also provides chances for all of the players to expand their improvisational skills.
A big concentration this module was on "Roundabout." We spent most of the time on a number of sessions on the song, and our work is really starting to show some great results. The song takes a great deal of concentration and skill on the part of each and every player, and I really appreciate the continuing focus by the students during these sessions. It is a real tour de force, which I hope to have ready in its entirety by the Evening of the Arts.
We also looked at and listened to the results of some of the songs the students wrote for and about the class. Lennon's and Josh's particularly show promise for further exploration, and we will continue to work on turning their work into performable songs for upcoming performances. Josh, in particular, did a fine job of creating an entire arrangement, with a full band sound and accompanying lyrics. I really appreciated that extra effort.
