Mathematics with Jenny Feaster
The end of the school year is coming upon us. I appreciate all of the hard work and dedication that Camelot students put into their studies. Most of the Upper School students will complete their semester or course math requirements. However, students who received a Mid-Semester Warning may need to attend summer school to fulfill the rest of their requirements. Summer School is also a great tool to move ahead for those students striving to reach a particular goal. It is not too late to sign up for summer school!
English with Jill Sugg
Advanced Placement Literature students and English 8/9 Advanced read Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor.
While the AP students are busy writing a variety of practice essays for the big national test coming up on May 6th, 8/9 Advanced students are writing an essay on how O'Connor uses symbolism and irony to convey theme. Mandatory AR for 8/9 Advanced is Joseph Heller's Catch-22, so if your child has not yet acquired a copy, please note the May 20th due date on having that book read. Advanced 8/9 also did a short fiction unit.
English 7/8/9 students did a short fiction unit. They also saw the classic James Dean film based on John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden and wrote a five paragraph essay on how the story parallels that of Cain and Abel.
All English classes brought in original anonymous poems and we ate while we read them. We were moved by how honest, artful, funny, and powerful the student work was. Everyone left with a packet of poems authored by his or her class. This is always my favorite classroom experience of the year.
English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm
American History: Students studied the impacts of the Great Depression and the New Deal on the American economy and political system.
Civics: Students have examined a range of issues, from the funding problems facing Social Security and Medicare to school re-segregation, using the Wake County busing policy as a foundation.
Current Events: Students looked at the recent declaration of Confederate History Month in Virginia as well as a Florida law that mandates history must be taught as fact, not as a process of interpretation. These issues formed the basis of an inquiry into what the study of history truly involves.
English 10/11/12: Students have been writing responses to class readings at ten11twelve.wordpress.com. These readings have included Anton Chekhov's short story "The Bet," as well as a pair of articles dealing with the prevalence of ADHD in American life.
World History: Students examined the Nazis' rise to power in Germany in the 1930s, and looked at World War II from several different perspectives.
Science with Lori Hilliard
Environmental Science: Students have been working on building solar ovens to accompany our study of alternative energy forms. I can't wait to see the finish product and see what they cook up.
Human Biology: This class finished their study of neurobiology and the affects of drugs on neuronal transmissions. All students successfully mastered their exams and have moved on to more diagnostic problems.
Chemistry: Periodicity and Acid/Base reactions have been the focus of Module 9. Students have completed many laboratory activities including making their own acid/base indicator solutions from plant extracts and production of hydrogen gas.
Biology: The study of invertebrates has filled this module for the biology students. They have examined sponges, starfish, and earthworms.
Physics with Dan Hill
This module the physics students have been studying angular mechanics: rotation, torque, angular momentum. We also visited the ice skating rink to pay close attention to the action of mechanics in a low-friction environment. Some of us even learned to ice skate; I spun around until I was sick, sacrificing my physical comfort for science!
Spanish with Celia Battle
Introduction to Spanish (US)—Students have mastered the use of the imperfect tense and have begun to read a short novel in Spanish, "Pobre Ana."
Introduction to Spanish (MG/US)—Students continued to compare the use of regular and irregular verbs in the preterit tense and the imperfect tense. They have started to write sentences to describe past actions as they learn to tell a story in Spanish. These verb tenses are challenging and require daily review and practice in order to master memorization of the conjugations.
Spanish 2—Students are mastering the use of the preterit and the imperfect tenses in the same writing passages. They continue their study of Mexican history as they read, answer questions and have discussions in class in Spanish.
Intermediate Spanish—Students have reviewed the subjunctive mood and have practiced the use of the present subjunctive tense and the imperfect subjunctive tense. They are learning Spanish refrains and how to use them in conversation. We read a classic short story, "Una carta a Dios" and did an oral literary analysis of the story.
Advanced Spanish—Advanced students have read and studied passages from the novel De cómo las muchachas García perdieron el acento by the award-winning Dominican novelist Julia Alvarez. They are now reading another short biographical work by the same author, El cuento del cafecito. Daily class discussions focus on these readings as well as topics of interest that students bring to class.
Physical Education with Krista Moll
Each Upper School class had a little variation in what we did the last few weeks. However, fitness was the same as usual, working through a circuit training layout. We usually get through two or three cycles of the circuit depending on how many breaks we take in between each. I feel they have done a great job working through the circuits. Depending on which class the students are in, they either played Gaga on their sport/game day and moved onto discgolf (Wednesday's class) or they played discgolf and moved onto tennis (Friday's class) throughout the module. Gaga is a fun ball game the students thoroughly enjoyed playing on the porch here at Camelot. For discgolf, we are taking the students to Cornwallis park and having the students play through half of the course. Tennis is being played at the tennis courts at Forest Hills Park.
Please be on the lookout for a waiver form from the American Tobacco YMCA. This is the fitness center we will indeed be going to in May during P.E. class. I am very excited to be taking our students to this particular fitness center. They are within walking distance of the school! Therefore, we will be walking to the YMCA instead of taking the bus, which means the students get to exert even more energy!
Art with Brittain Peck
After completing the initial printing of their woodblocks in a single color, the students were charged with the further challenge of incorporating additional color into their printing process. The students were presented with a variety of techniques and methods to use color with their print, including carving an additional block(s) to print a second color, selectively inking their woodblock with more than one color of ink, painting on the printing paper with watercolor before printing the woodblock, and creating a color collage on the printing paper in a technique referred to as chine collé. Overall, I was very impressed with the students' creative approach to the use of color in their printed images as well as the technical abilities that they mastered in the process of learning new approaches to creating art.
Following our lengthy study of relief woodblock printing, we have shifted our focus to begin a study of observational drawing using charcoal. The students have been encouraged to challenge their fundamental understanding of how to create a drawing from seeing objects as forms and structures to prioritizing the contrasts of light and shadow in an environment. While using very simple media, this lesson provides a challenging opportunity for students to see and experience the world around them in dramatically different ways and to create drawings that can feel awkward and uncomfortable to the students' existing drawing sensibilities. Understanding these challenges, I have been very impressed with the students' courage in meeting the challenges of the lesson.
Music with Daniel Raimi
The Upper School music elective has been working hard on several fronts over the past few weeks. Our main points of emphasis have been understanding the Sonata form and writing our own pieces, as well as understanding the inner-workings of basic harmonic structure. We've discussed how best to add chords to simple melodies, and different strategies to make those harmonies sound distinctive. We've discussed chord inversions, arpeggiations, and the different types of chords we can use to harmonize entire measures and individual notes.
Students took our second quiz, which asked them to write a brief Sonata, harmonize an existing melody, and analyze a song that they may choose from a list. These songs range from the Beach Boys to Britney Spears, and each one of them has several distinctive structural features; whether it's an unusual set of chords, distinctive time signature or tempo, or a very wide-ranging melody. Students will be listening closely to these pieces in search of some of these unusual musical twists and turns.
Finally, several students have been preparing a brief piece to be performed at Evening of the Arts. Since so many of the students in class are already performing with other groups that evening, the entire class will not be performing together, but about half of us are working on a foundational piece of post-modern composition by the "minimalist" composer Steve Reich called "Clapping Music." It's short, sweet, and loud!
Drama with Roni Peterson
The students wrote their original monologues using the character from their journals. They performed them and I gave them specific direction on those performances. I surprised them during one class when my husband, a professional cinematographer, brought his camera and sound equipment to film the students performing their monologues. The students did a great job. A DVD was made from the taping session and I played it for the students and had each student write a critique of their performance as homework. Only I read their critique. I must say that they were able to honestly look at their performance and chose the things that I too would have commented on. It was a very good experience for them to actually see themselves acting as others see them. Students were also given a film vocabulary quiz on the camera department and electric department terms and crew positions.
Four short scenes were chosen from the play "13 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview", to be performed at the Evening of the Arts. The students and scenes chosen were those that volunteered to perform. We used a portion of the class time to rehearse those scenes. Improvisation exercises were also covered during this module. I have arranged to have a working actress come to speak to the class during Module 10. I asked her if she would be willing to act in some scripted materials with the students and she agreed. I think that the students will enjoy her visit.
CLUB CLASS
We made good progress on a lot of songs this module, short as it was. We started out most of our sessions with a vocal warm-up, focusing on harmonizing, and applied that to our songs. Our blending and note retention is much improved on "One Love," "Imagine," and "I Get Around." We started learning two new songs: "Accidentally In Love," by Counting Crowes, with Rachel Roush on lead vocal, and Queen's "Somebody To Love," with Lance Wilkes handling the famous Freddy Mercury part. Alec Porter was unable to attend a couple of classes because of a back injury, but returned showing improvement in his guitar playing on all the songs, and more vocal confidence on John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change." Kriea Giffin-Dean, with the help of a drum set I lent her, is becoming more assured with her drumming, and I am hoping she will be able to integrate the hi-hat and ride cymbal with the rest of the kit by our Broad Street Cafe performance. Brianna Oleson sings with much style on "One Love," and adds pure and agile soprano harmonies to the other songs in our repertoire. Rachel continues to be our jill-of-all-trades, singing soprano and alto vocals, playing drums, tambourine, and piano. Sophie Reiter continues to improve on her vocal volume, harmony retention, and stage presence on her solo song, "The Way I Am."
Remember our upcoming performances for the "Evening of the Arts" on Friday, May 7 at 7pm, at "Artsplosure" in Raleigh on Sunday, May 16, at 2pm, and at the Broad Street Cafe on Thursday, May 20, at 5pm. We will be performing for 10 minutes on May 7, and doing our entire repertoire on May 20, both along with the Credit Band.
CREDIT BAND
This module was spent narrowing down our choices for end of year performances, refining existing songs, and starting to think more about the performance of the music, as opposed to just getting the notes right. We added a few new songs, one of which, a Charlie Daniels tune called "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," was performed by the "B" band last year. We are resurrecting this one to showcase Grace Kirkpatrick's new electric violin. We also learned Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," which will be sung by guest Tate Arges at the Broad Street Cafe Performance, and "Cities On Flame," by the Blue Oyster Cult, to showcase Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach's smoking guitar playing. Refinements continued on "Roundabout," where we are finally able to play the entire song, top to bottom, without a break, and "The Weight," with it's improvisatory nature, and shared lead vocals with Josh Stallings and Lennon. We also continued to work on Josh's original song, written for the band, called "Perfection," and Lennon helped to arrange his song assignment, "Camelot A Band for Winners." Lastly, we completed the reshaping of two songs from the first semester, with Grace effortlessly learning her harmonies and newly created violin parts on "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and "In My Life."
Remember our upcoming performances for the Evening of the Arts on May 7 at 7pm, and at the Broad Street Cafe on Thursday, May 20, at 5pm. We will be performing for 10 minutes on May 7, and doing our entire repertoire on May 20, both in tandem with the Club Band.
