KCD Headlines

Eleven seniors will play college sports next year

james.booker — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:17:35 +0000

This afternoon, the athletic department hosted a ceremony to recognize the eleven seniors who will play sports in college next year. Congratulations to these student-athletes:

Matt Browne: Furman University, Tennis
David Clifford: Maryville College, Baseball
Denny Fortney: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Football
Shelbi Hendricks, Washington & Lee University, Basketball
Tahlia Hodes: Mount Holyoke College, Equestrian
Matt Kircher, Centre College, Football
Cali Klink: Transylvania University, Lacrosse
Blake Scinta: Centre College, Basketball
Andrea Wambaugh: Carthage College, Lacrosse
Kya Wence: Sewanee University, Softball
Woody White: Centre College, Lacrosse

Students showcase work at art show

james.booker — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:23:24 +0000

Last weekend’s art show was a great way to catch up on the wonderful creative work being done by our upper school art students. This week’s show featured strong work in ceramics, photography, drawing, and painting. Congratulations to these artists on a great show!

Photos on Flickr

JV lacrosse girls are Braveheart champions, team remains undefeated!

james.booker — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:37:25 +0000

Congratulations to the JV girls’ lacrosse team and their coaches, Sarah Beckman and Maggie Flowers '08. The team pushed their overall season record to 12-0 with a thrilling 8-6 victory over arch-rival Ballard in the championship of Sacred Heart's Braveheart tournament. The game was a rematch of the regular season contest in which the Bearcats prevailed 8-7.

In the tournament, the Bearcats defeated Mercy, Assumption, and Male by a combined score of 30-7 in pool play before meeting the Bruins in the final. In a wonderful display of poise and toughness, the girls came back from an early 2-0 deficit to take a 5-3 lead into halftime. The second half featured some exciting back-and-forth action, great midfield defense, and timely plays by a number of Bearcats.

According to varsity head coach Pat McAnulty, “This is definitely the most talented JV team we have ever fielded. The future is very bright!”

The varsity and JV teams play Collegiate here at KCD on Tuesday, May 1. Please come out and support these awesome teams!

Highlights from our Title IX report

james.booker — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:30:35 +0000

Some of you may have read Coach Green’s blog post last week on our most recent Title IX report. In case you missed it, some of the highlights from that report are included below. We are proud that KCD is a school that works hard to achieve gender equity in athletics.

49% of all athletes participating in our program were female, 51% were male.
49.7% of athletic department expenditures were spent on girls’ sports, 50.3% on boys.
Coaching expertise/years’ experience tilted toward the girls by an average of 0.2 years per coach.
We had 1086 participants in our athletic program last year: 570 in high school programs and 516 in middle school. (For reporting purposes, one student who plays three sports counts as three.)

Grandparents and Special Friends program celebrates the rights of children

james.booker — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:04:42 +0000

Congratulations to Jeannine Ary, LuAnn Hayes, and the lower school performers on an exceptional Grandparents’ Day program last Friday. This year’s performance celebrated the rights of all children around the world as established by the United Nations.

The program featured performances from all students in grades 1–4, including an inspirational segment in which fourth grade students spelled out the rights of children using the alphabets of the eighteen different languages represented in the fourth grade. The program concluded with alumna Carter Wood Sartor ‘89 joining lower school students to perform the KCD Song, which she composed specially for this performance.

Watch the closing number on YouTube

We are also very proud to announce that KCD raised $1,035 for UNICEF through the all-school dress-down days during the spring. Ms. Mendel accepted the check from lower school students on behalf of UNICEF.

Photos on Flickr

Endangered Species Project connects students with wildlife experts

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:12:40 +0000

The Endangered Species Project is a major academic focus of the eighth grade year as well as an outstanding example of project-based learning at KCD. Throughout the six-week project, students approach the study of their endangered species from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, then integrate that work into a final project presentation.

The project is the major focus of eighth grade English, science, history, and computer classes during the spring. According to computer teacher Sarah Shartzer, one of the goals of the project is to spur students to make meaningful connections across the disciplines; throughout the project, students are encouraged to consider the connections between these different areas of study and to connect them to their particular animal.

Ms. Shartzer sees the project as the culmination of the skills that students have been developing during their years in Middle School. Skills such as conducting in-depth research, time management, connecting classroom learning to real world issues, and critical thinking about complex problems are key aspects of the unit. “In many ways, we also see [the project] as preparation for the kind of academic work that’s expected in the Upper School,” Ms. Shartzer explained.

According to the eighth grade teachers, the requirement that students correspond with a wildlife expert about their animal is one of the more unique and rewarding components of the project. Students discuss strategies for making contact in English class, where they also learn about email etiquette. This year, our students were especially fortunate to find an engaged and enthusiastic group of correspondents. Kendall Jackson, for example, found that her initial contact, the Youth Education Coordinator at the Feline Conservation Foundation, was able to put her in touch with other authorities, providing additional resources for Kendall’s study of the Guiña.

Ayah Kutmah found a generous and enthusiastic correspondent in Dr. Robert Schneider, the Director of Boston University’s Center for Ecology and Conservation and an authority on the Sri Lankan Petite Shrub Frog. “Every time I came up with a question,” Ayah recalled, “he was willing to take the time to answer me.” Dr. Schneider was so impressed with this student-directed aspect of the project that he sent the following kudos to Ms. Shartzer: “First, let me say thanks to you for getting your students engaged in a project on endangered species . . . Second, I wanted to let you know that it was wonderful to correspond with Ayah about the Sri Lankan frogs. She showed a lot of initiative in reaching out to me with questions, and it is great that you encourage your students to do so.”

Throughout the project, students are challenged to engage with the complex relationships between governments, local communities, and the local biosphere that inform environmental policy. For many of our students, this broader perspective proves to be a memorable outcome of the project. “The most important thing I learned,” said Lilly Brice, “is the importance of paying attention to the bigger picture going on around us.” Ayah Kutmah agrees that the project has encouraged her to approach problem-solving in a more complex way. “Your plan has to consider not only the animal,” she said, “but the other things that are going on in the country and community.”

In addition to their final presentation, students complete a number of other projects, including a fictional travelogue for English class and an informational pamphlet for science. Click the images above to see some outstanding examples of student work. To learn more about the Endangered Species Project, visit the project website.

iPads expand interactive learning in the Lower School

james.booker — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:27:57 +0000

Last week, lower school teachers gained a new tool for engaging students in interactive learning: a mobile cart with eight iPads. Because of their intuitive touch-screen interface and the wide range of educational apps available for young students, the iPads are a great fit in lower school classrooms.

“Using iPads in the classroom will allow teachers to more effectively engage students,” said Lower School Director Amy Mendel. “Because the children are so eager to use the iPads, they cannot wait to learn whatever is being taught!” Ms. Mendel also believes that the iPads will give students another way to work toward individual learning goals. “By using apps targeted toward specific skills, such as those created by the Everyday Mathematics program,” she said, “students can work at their own level to achieve their goals and move on to next steps.”

The new devices are already being put to use across different grade levels. Ms. Kemp’s kindergartners are using the devices as part of their daily literacy block, and Ms. Kennedy’s fourth graders have used them to research individual essay projects. Today, Mr. Blair’s class used the tablets to explore the Color Uncovered app created by the San Francisco Exploratorium. “I used to take my students to the Exploratorium when I taught in San Francisco,” Mr. Blair said. “Now my students can experience some of those same exhibits on their iPads.”

Teachers are enthusiastic about the new devices and have begun to share information about apps that fit into existing curricula. Over time, we plan to increase the number of iPads available to lower school students. If you have an older model iPad that you would like to donate to KCD, please contact Amy Mendel or Tim Rice.

Project-based learning in the biology classroom

admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:13:25 +0000

In their guide to project-based learning, the Edutopia website argues that project-based learning allows students to combine fundamental skills such as reading, writing, and math with 21st century skills such as teamwork, problem solving, time management, information synthesis, and utilizing technology. As a result, the site argues, “students become directors and managers of their learning process, guided and mentored by a skilled teacher.”

Project-based learning is an important part of the KCD curriculum. Throughout the rest of this year, we will post a series of articles highlighting best practices in project-based learning at KCD.

Diane McCallum’s biology class includes several projects that integrate core subject matter with skills crossing a variety of disciplines. In the pamphlet project, for example, students research a genetic disease, then turn that research into a pamphlet intended for distribution in a doctor’s office. The project requires students to explain complex concepts in layman’s terms, and to complete the project successfully, students need to draw on diverse sets of skills such as composition, design, and facility with software.

In addition to requiring students to integrate different sets of skills, Ms. McCallum’s newspaper project also requires students to work collaboratively. For this project, students work in groups of three to create a newspaper or magazine containing 5–6 articles focusing on the application of biotechnology in areas such as forensics, agriculture, medicine, and cloning. In addition to research-based reporting, students must also include persuasive pieces arguing the pros and cons of each biotech application. Other requirements include designing the piece and selecting appropriate artwork. Click below to browse and example for this year’s class.

Open publication - Free publishing - More biology

According to Ms. McCallum, the synthesis of different sets of skills is an important part of these projects. “Different parts of the project draw on different strengths,” she explained. “It allows the students to learn from each other as they work together.”

KCD makes a connection with West Liberty Elementary

admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:52:57 +0000

Although the two schools are more than 150 miles apart, last week KCD took the first step in making a connection with West Liberty Elementary, a school devastated by tornadoes earlier this month.

A major schoolwide project to support the school concluded last week. The KCD community responded with overwhelming support, and donations poured in to all three divisions. On Friday afternoon, students and teachers helped pack a 26’ truck nearly full of snacks, clothes, books, PE and playground equipment, and other items.

Friday afternoon, Mark Smith and Jeff Holbrook drove the supplies to West Liberty and dropped them off at the school, which began holding classes this week in a converted factory building. Amber Day Adams, who is Jeff Holbrook’s cousin as well as a teacher at West Liberty Elementary, asked Jeff to pass the following message along to the KCD community: “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the kindness, love, and generosity from KCD! It’s amazing! I know each and every one of your students and parents have put so much love into each and every thing you all sent! I just want to say thank you and that our students have been so blessed to have you all be a part of helping us.”

We hope to continue our relationship with the school and the West Liberty community in the future. For right now, we are going to give the school some time to get classes running smoothly and to assess their needs. We plan to keep in contact with school officials so that we can help to meet future needs as they arise.

Thanks to everyone in the KCD community for their incredible support of this project! We are grateful to Mark Smith, Rocky Mountain Logistics, and RML Shredding for donating the truck. We would also like to thank to Steph Steinberg, who organized and packaged the lower school donations.

Wednesday’s Courier-Journal featured a nice article on the project.

More photos on Flickr

Google Apps open new possibilities in the classroom

admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:49:10 +0000

Earlier this month, Mr. Lyman and Mr. Ceaser announced an exciting new initiative that will create a one-to-one middle school laptop program using Google Chromebooks. According to Google, this will make KCD the first independent middle school in the nation to implement such a program! (To learn more, see this letter and the Google@KCD website.)

Middle school teachers and students began using Google Apps for Education at the beginning of the year, and teachers across all grade levels and disciplines have been enthusiastic about the way these tools enhance communication and collaboration in the classroom.

In Megan Pollitt’s fifth grade science classes, for example, students have been using Google spreadsheets to share and analyze data collaboratively. Ms. Pollitt is also using document collaboration tools to provide lab groups with real-time feedback as they work.

In Anne Kaiser-Harryman’s sixth grade English classes, students have been using the Chromebook cart and Google Docs’ collaboration tools for their writing workshops. “We have been having some of our best writing workshop days ever because of the Chromebooks in my classroom,” she said. “I may shock my kids by starting to dance down here out of my happiness over this new tool!”

Greg Korchnak’s eighth grade science classes are using Google Apps nearly every day. Using Google Docs, Mr. Korchnak has been posting interactive class notes that include extension activities and videos. His students also use Google Docs to complete and submit their homework, making it easy to track and grade student assignments. “Google Apps is great,” he said, “because if a student is absent, they can make up the majority of the work while they are out of school. They can come back to class ready to work without missing a step.”

Lisa Stringfellow’s fifth grade English classes have been using Google Docs for collaborative projects and to extend the idea of the traditional reader’s notebook. According to Ms. Stringfellow, this method allows her to read and engage with students’ ideas as they are developing.

Mr. Ceaser said that Google Apps has been successful in the Middle School because the tools are both simple and intuitive. “Google Apps lets us use technology without making technology the focus of the classroom,” he said. “The technology gets out of the way and lets students and teachers focus on collaborating together and learning.”