What's Up In Upper School?

2010-2011 Module 3

2010-11-15T06:23:00.000-05:00

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

We are at the end of Module 3. Most students have been diligent and have completed their mid-semester requirements. If your student is at all falling behind in pace you will receive a Mid-Semester Warning. Please help encourage your child to get back on pace and avoid an Incomplete. There are a few students who have already finished their first semester requirements and are now working on second semester requirements. I have been pleased with the progress each student has made this module.

Students in the 7th and 8th Grade Upper School Math Classes will be taking the AMC 8 Mathematics test. This is a math contest that will recognize student achievement in mathematics. The test will be administered November 16, 2010.

Mathematics with Dan Hill

The students in my section have thus far been working pretty hard; the majority of them have remained on or ahead of pace for the first quarter. If your student has fallen behind pace, I will be assigning lots of homework, so be prepared for some whining.

I don't have anyone interested in the AMC 8 in my section, but I em do have some interest in the AMC 10, which is in the spring.

English with Jill Sugg

AP students handed in the final copy of their Academic Fair research paper. They wrote a definition paper and began writing personal journals.

Advanced English 8/9/10 handed in the rough draft of their research papers and began reading Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations.

English 7/8 also handed in the rough draft of their research papers and did a unit on The Odyssey.

English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

American History: Students have looked at the controversies regarding the creation and ratification of the Constitution, and issues related to the first decade of the United States.

Civics: Students have looked more in-depth at the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances, and looked at the controversies related to these that occurred during the presidency of George W. Bush.

Current Events: Students have learned basics of American government, such as political ideology, the role of parties, and basic principles of American government such as rule of law, limited government, separation of powers, and checks and balances.

World History: Students have looked at the origins of monotheism as well as contributions of the ancient Greeks via the philosophies of Socrates and Plato.

English: Students have been hard at work on their Academic Fair research papers. Students' rough drafts were generally very good and their topics should help to create a very interesting Academic Fair on November 19.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Environmental Science: The Environmental Science class is headlong into the study of human populations and the effects on the Earth's resources. We have played many simulation games and have calculated our ecological footprints. Students were surprised to learn that if everyone on the Earth lived as we do, that it would take an average of 5 Earths to sustain the population.

Human Biology: The Human Biology class has concluded their study of the integumentary system. From memorizing the layers of the epidermis to simulating the effects of exercise and quantity of sweat produced daily, the students have worked hard in this course and I am very proud of their efforts. We will continue to have weekly medical terminology quizzes.

Chemistry: Mole Concept has been the focus of this class in the last module. Students are learning to use mathematics concepts in new ways and seem to find it challenging and rewarding. Finding the number of moles of chalk (Calcium carbonate) that it takes to write one's name on the paved road was both educational and made us feel a little like rebels in the road.

Biology: The study of botany has really put this class in the green zone. Their leaf collections were outstanding and their exam scores amazing. I am very proud of all their efforts. The students have used their artistic skills in many ways during this course of study as well as continuing to hone their microscopy skills. Observing mitosis in onion root tips and learning new slide staining techniques has been a challenge as well.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish 1: Students have enjoyed Destinos and have studied Episodes #3 and #4. They have learned about Spanish customs and culture, new vocabulary, basic grammar and are mastering sentences related to the episodes. I am very pleased with the interest and enthusiasm that the class has shown in this endeavor. Kudos to the students for keeping their ring binders organized and up to date and many thanks to the parents for supplying our first period treats to keep the class focused and energized.

Spanish 2: Students have completed another chapter in our Realidades textbook and have enjoyed challenging verb competitions. Most performed quite well in the test and have mastered the vocabulary, grammar and reflexive verbs in six tenses. We will focus on increasing spontaneous classroom conversations and class discussions of a variety of topics.

Intermediate Spanish 1: Students have studied thematic vocabulary, have written creative paragraphs and given oral presentations of these topics. Conversations and class discussions have helped to solidify the learning experience. Reading our student magazine AHORA has provided numerous opportunities to initiate conversations and learn about the life and interests of high school students in Spanish speaking countries.

Intermediate Spanish 2: This class has selected a wide variety of topics for research, class discussion and writing. We have engaged in daily conversations about current events, students' interests, world religions and medical issues. In developing these topics students have reviewed grammar, verb tenses and vocabulary use while continuing to improve their oral and written communication skills. This is a very lively and energetic group!

Advanced Spanish: The Advanced Class has been learning about Spanish history from the time that the first groups inhabited the Iberian Peninsula to the time of the Reconquest. Students have done research and given oral presentations to the class about Spanish artists, painters, musicians and writers. We have continued our review of Spanish grammar and verb tenses. This class is highly motivated to increase their oral communication skills and they do so daily during our lively discussions of all kinds of topics, from current events to philosophy and cultural trends.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

We started out the navigation unit and we will continue with this navigation unit throughout Module 4 as well. Thank you for having your child come prepared to class with a compass! Students learned about the parts of the compass, how to use a compass to get from point A to point B, and we briefly touched upon plotting UTM coordinates. It's not easy plotting coordinates and I suspect we'll be taking a couple classes to practice this before we start plotting UTM coordinates from the geocaching website to search for caches near the school!

Music with Glenn Mehrbach

Each week during this module we looked at a different aspect of music. The first week I went over the musical theory that I taught earlier in the semester, and gave the students resources and homework pertaining to this. This turned out to be very perplexing for a large majority of the students, and I realized that either I had not explained the subject very well, or had explained it too quickly. Since I didn't get much feedback from the classes while explaining the theory, I thought everyone was understanding. I was very wrong. So the homework ended up being more of a gauge for myself on how much each of the students knew about music theory. The next week we studied the history of classical music, from the earliest Gregorian chants to music written a little more than 10 years ago. It was a great way for the students to see that what they think of as "Classical Music" is really only a small part of the entirety of the genre. The comments of the students were very enlightening for me as well. The next week we began work on what I call "Human Garage Band," where each class creates and performs a song from scratch. I learned a lot about many of their abilities through this, discovering some talents unknown to me on keyboards, drum set, vocals and lyric writing. Some of the songwriting continues into the next module. I may have the best song performed by the class at the Academic Fair. Regardless, it was a very creative way for the students to discover what goes into making a song, from conception to performance.

Art with Brittain Peck

In Module 3 we have continued our break from Betty Edwards' exercises as outlined by the curriculum in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, but have maintained the central focus on "observation" that permeates her writing and lessons while opening increasing opportunity for the students to explore their own observations and ideas in their work. Our first lesson dealt with a cut and paste paper collage made from photocopied objects from each student's locker. The students were asked to explore their own locker for three to five auto-biographically meaningful objects which we then did our best to photocopy. We then discussed the difference between the original object and the photocopied image on the piece of paper as an example of a subject and its representation, noting that the representation is itself a new, unique entity not to be thought of as synonymously with the original object. Once this distinction was clarified, we began approaching the photocopied images as new objects, exploring them for unexpected material that may be used to create entirely new images in our collage. As a working mantra, the students were encouraged to create collages that were themselves original and interesting objects, rather than imitations or attempted duplicates of either the original objects or their photocopied images.

For our final lesson, we moved even closer to the students' individual insights and ideas, while still maintaining a focus on observation, by looking at the example of a currently alive and creating Dutch artist named Helmut Smits. We discussed the meaning and role of "concept" in art and other objects and discussed the problematic title of "conceptual artist" as it is applied to artists like Smits. Understanding that the power of Smits work lay in his ideas (rather than his skill as a painter or draftsman) and his ability to give his ideas a form and presence in the real, material world, the students were challenged to focus on their own ideas as the basis for possible works of art. The exercise was one in brainstorming and conceptualization, devoid of any materials or actual art-making. Understanding that such a process can only be completed by a similar brainstorming and exploration process with tangible materials to give form to the students' ideas, this exercise leaves open possibilities for future work and continued creation.

Module 3 concludes my time working with your children as their art instructor and I can honestly say that I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with them and share my passion for art and art making. They are a bright group of talented individuals and I look forward to hearing about their future accomplishments.

Thank you,
Mr. Brittain

Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson

We have been doing memory enhancing exercises. These included the Mirror Exercise where one student faces another and uses hands, arms, head, legs, and body movements that the other student must mirror, as though being the reflection. This exercise helps actors with concentration, and observations needed while performing. The Camera Exercise has one student in front of the class, all students change their seats. The student in front examines the new seating of the students and concentrates on where each student is now sitting. When he/she is ready, he/she takes an imaginary picture with an imaginary camera and leaves the room. The students then move once again to another seat. The student returns to the room and using his/her memory (picture), puts the students back into the seat they were in when the "picture" was taken. The more advanced exercise is two students face each other and one will strike a pose. A "picture" will be taken and the student who is to remember the pose will turn back to other student and then the pose will be changed. It can change by the movement of one finger, a glance, a smile into a frown. The other student is then asked to put the pose back to the original.

The concept of Method Acting was discussed and the definition of Sensory Memory was taught. I did this as a lecture, giving students examples of exercises they could do at home. This is an advanced course in acting and I will not be going into it further in class as it can get extremely personal and I find it inappropriate for this age group. We also began to lean long form improvisation. We will continue with this during Module 4 along with the use of props in the improvisations.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

VOCAL ENSEMBLE CLUB
The vocal ensemble continued to make wonderful progress this module. We narrowed down our work to three songs: "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel, "No Mirror's in My Nana's House" by Ysaye Barnwell of "Sweet Honey in the Rock," and "Jump" by Van Halen (the "Glee" version). We also took a look at "Proud Mary," by John Fogerty (also based on the "Glee" version). All of the students are becoming more comfortable with singing harmonies, more assured of their own voices, and more comfortable with singing together as a group. It is very exciting to watch, and I look forward to showing everyone their progress at the Academic Fair. Bri Oleson is our resident soprano, carrying the high notes with assurance and style. Amy Hillsman has carried herself well in whatever role she is given, and sings a strong lead vocal on both "No Mirror's" and parts of "The Longest Time." Sophie Reiter has been adapting well to harmony singing, and is beginning to increase her vocal volume with each rehearsal. Ryn Wilkes is making good progress toward constant pitch recognition, and once she finds the correct pitch to sing, she really gets "in the groove" and sings with gusto. Lance Wilkes is the volume measure by which we measure ourselves. If we could all sing as loudly and clearly as Lance, we would have no need for microphones! I want to thank Lance for making the effort to be prepared for class. Whatever he's doing to prepare for the early morning classes is really working. And finally, last but not least, is our new-found bass vocalist, Alec Porter. Alec's rich and vibrant baritone really holds up the low end on certain of the songs, and his solo vocal style is also evident at times. I am really enjoying watching Alec develop his range and vocal style.

MUSIC PERFORMANCE CREDIT BAND
The Credit Band made great strides during this module. After a rough start trying to find the right places for all the members to fit into, we have an excellent dynamic going for us now, and I really like the progress we're making. We continued to refine "Pinball Wizard" and "Moondance," and started serious work on "Don't Rain On My Parade." We also began to dig into a new Barlow Girl song, "Song for the Broken." On the jazz front, we began experimenting with different arranging and vocal styles on the old jazz standard "Comes Love." I played them about 10 different versions of the song, to show how each different performer can bring something fresh and new to any song. Olivia Arges continues to grow stronger vocally, and has begun to be more expressive as a performer as well. I continue to encourage her to sing with her whole body, and to think of each song as telling a story to the audience. Grace Kirkpatrick's improvisations continue to mature and grow, both on the violin and vocally. Whatever ways she expresses herself musically, she does it with passion and style. Brian Powell's current dual role as guitarist and bassist is working out very well. He is really taking the difficult part on "Song for the Broken" in stride, and performing it with more musicality and ease at each session. And his bass playing is becoming more assured as well. Zachariah Claypole White is making big strides in the class, from learning the correct scales for solos to mastering difficult rhythms to playing with more articulation and attack. His understanding of the guitar, music in general, and how to play and listen at the same time is a joy to watch. I've asked Rachel Roush to fill a lot of shoes this year, and, so far, she is filling them well. Whether playing the keyboard string parts on "Don't Rain On My Parade," bass on "Comes Love" and "Song for the Broken" or vocal leads and harmonies on "Pinball Wizard," Rachel always tries her best, and is wonderful to teach. I always enjoy the mornings when she arrives early to set up the room for me. Despite being absent for a few classes because of her clogging career, Sarah Chetty remains a backbone for the group, and is beginning to master all of the moderately difficult keyboard parts I've given her. Her improvisations on "Moondance" become more expansive and expressive each time she plays it. Lastly, Elisabeth Parker continues to show her talent and patience on drums. We were able to get her a new hi-hat during this module, which she uses with great aplomb. And after much encouragement, her musical fills are growing more assured and adventurous, and her basic rhythm playing keeps us all in line. She does a wonderful job of reading the music I write for her, but bringing her own energy and style to it as well. I look forward to everyone seeing their progress at the upcoming Academic Fair.

2010-2011 Module 2

2010-10-24T15:01:00.005-04:00

Module 2 Upper School

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

We are at the end of another module. Most students have been diligent in class during Module 2. They are progressing in their requirements and learning the material very well. If your student is falling behind in pace we will take this module to progress so that later they will not receive a Mid-Semester Warning. Please help encourage your child to get back on pace and avoid an incomplete. Overall, I am very pleased with student progress. I am encouraged by all of the efforts and interest in math.

Mathematics with Dan Hill

With pretesting behind us, we've settled into the routine of class, and some of us have been making quite a bit of progress. Students should now all have pace calendars; please keep an eye on your student's progress with respect to his or her calendar. If students maintain appropriate pace, we may have a few days where we put aside the usual grind to talk about something extracurricular (but still mathematical) and engaging.

English with Jill Sugg

Advanced Placement Composition wrote the rough draft to their research papers and saw the classic film version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in conjunction with their summer reading. Advanced English 8/9/10 selected topics for their research papers and procured their 5 sources; they also saw the film version of "Much Ado about Nothing". English 7/8 did a short story unit and vocabulary as well as declaring their Academic Fair topics. A lot of researching going on!

English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

American History: Students have explored the life in the Virginia and Massachusetts colonies, comparing their political systems, economies, and cultures.

Civics: Students have examined the Constitution and the powers it grants to the executive and legislative branches of the government. They have also looked at the practicalities of the legislative process.

Current Events: Students have learned about the history of Islam, and continued to examine the controversies regarding Muslims in America.

World History: Students considered the origins of civilization in ancient Mesopotamia, including their religious beliefs and political and social organization.

English: Students have read a series of short stories and they also wrote a piece of short fiction. Preparations for Academic Fair are about to shift into high gear!

Science with Lori Hilliard

Environmental Science The study of habitats and population ecology has dominated this module. Students have produced amazing lab reports and visual/oral presentations on an extreme habitat of their choice.

Human Biology: Medical terminology and the integumentary system have been the focus of this module. Students have proven themselves to be amazing laboratory practitioners.

Chemistry: Writing and naming formulas has been successfully mastered by this class. I am proud of all of their efforts to be successful in such a difficult course.

Biology: Botany has been the topic of interest this module. Students will hand in detailed leaf collections upon return from conference week.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish 1: Pre-testing and review are over and we have begun our video series Destinos. We are studying vocabulary and grammar related to the first two episodes and students are learning about the main character, his family and the mystery that will be solved.

Spanish 2: Now that pre-testing and review are completed we have settled into the class routine. We are solidifying grammar concepts and verb tenses as well as increasing thematic vocabulary and classroom conversations in Spanish. Students are being challenged daily to communicate in Spanish in class.

Intermediate Spanish 1: Pre-testing and review are completed. Our overall focus is to increase thematic vocabulary, improve oral communication and improve writing samples. Students have been challenged to prepare "hot topics" to share in lively class discussions which motivate them to communicate daily with one another in Spanish. We are also working on developing short paragraphs related to the topics covered in class.

Intermediate Spanish 2: After review and pre-testing we have started to engage in daily conversations of "hot topics" presented daily by the students. From these conversations we develop thematic vocabulary lilsts which are also used to develop writing samples in class and in homework assignments. These students are settling into this new routine and are enjoying conversing in Spanish about all sorts of topics of interest to them.

Advanced Spanish: Now that review and pre-testing are done we have started a comprehensive study of grammar and verb tenses as well as started learning about Hispanic countries. This will continue all year, along with daily discussions of current events, literary readings and improving the quality and quantity of the students' written work. This is a very enthusiastic and high energy group and time flies in class as everyone communicates in Spanish about a wide range of interesting topics.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

During the last few weeks Upper School students learned about caving formations, equipment needed to cave, and basic movement through a cave. It was fun and humorous watching them crawl underneath tables and climb over playground apparatus. They did a great job with it all and I was glad to see many of the students used the movement and information we learned in class during our caving trip in early October during conference week. Our next unit is navigation. I'm hoping you have received a handout explaining your child will need a compass by the week of October 18th. A Brunton or Silva compass is typically what is used, but any compass similar to the compass I had listed on the handout will do. Also, if you happen to have a UTM grid overlay tool or would like to buy one for your child to use, that would be great. I have a few and I plan to buy more, but it will be helpful having some students bring their own UTM tools. They are a few dollars depending on which one you get and I believe REI sells them as well.

Music with Glenn Mehrbach

After breaking down the elements of music in our first class, and analyzing students' song choices to get an idea of what kind of music they like and listen to, we began to learn about music theory. The first element as explored was rhythm, which finished up Module 1. We started Module 2 talking about harmony, and explaining about notes, intervals and chords. We diagrammed what makes up a scale, in terms of whole steps and half steps, and how that knowledge can help us identify the 4 major chords. I tested the students on hearing types of chords by ear alone. I also brought in some "boomwhackers," which are long colored tubes that, when struck on something hard, produce a specific musical tone. We used these to demonstrate melody and harmony. It was also a good chance for the students to practice working as a group, since each person generally had one tube. Different classes had varied success with the boomwhackers, and we played tunes like "Louie, Louie," "Heart and Soul," "Happy Birthday" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Just before the break I began bringing in 17th century rounds (like "Frere Jacques") to teach about how melodies work, and sometimes intertwine to create harmony. We had a lot of very shy singers, but also made found some very resonant and musical voices during the exercises.

Art with Brittain Peck

Working within the scheduling confines of student conferences, our Upper School art classes continued their study of left and right brain cognitive processes through hands-on drawing exercises. Each class has progressed through the mirrored facial profile and upside-down line drawing on their own schedule. Following these two exercises we have undertaken an exercise to place increasing emphasis on our ability to observe and describe with increased specificity and accuracy. Our latest lesson is what is oftentimes referred to as a blind contour drawing; "contour" meaning that the drawing focus on the edges and lines in the observed objects and "blind" meaning that the students are required to create the drawing without ever looking at their paper. The concept behind doing such a drawing is to break the overall process of observational drawing into two distinct parts; the observation or looking and seeing that a person does with their eyes and the drawing or actual movements of the pencil that a person does with their hands. Because the physical coordination required to create even the most impressive and accurate of observational drawings is no greater than what a person needs to be able to write their own name, the "missing link" between being able to accurately draw what a person sees is not a challenge to the person's hands so much as it is a challenge to their eyes. Normally, we observe the world with a cursory, summarized understanding because doing so allows us to efficiently edit and process the infinite amount of stimuli and information around us to be able to complete even the most basic every day tasks. For example, we do not need to think about whether a stop sign is older, more faded, or leans more to the left than the last stop sign that we saw, but rather simply note that it is a stop sign and that we need to stop our car. Therefore, drawing more accurately is largely connected to seeing more accurately and more in depth than we normally do. The blind contour exercise is intended to direct the student's entire focus onto the object being observed without splitting their attention between observation and drawing. The finished drawings from this exercise seldom look like or resemble the object that the student was looking at, but this is not the goal of the drawing. Instead, it is the act of concentrated observation that is the primary focus of this exercise which provides students with practice in a more fully engaged experience with the world around them.

Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson

During this module all classes continued to complete their original scripts using the summer vacation prompts. The students then performed the skits "on book" which is a term used when reading from a script. Their performances were critiqued by me and then performed again. The students are learning how direction can change the structure of their performance. We will continue working with these original scripts and have different students playing different parts. We also did some improvisational exercises using one word prompts.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

VOCAL ENSEMBLE CLUB
Great progress was made by all the students in the Vocal Ensemble in Module 2. We took our time for the first few sessions, practicing various warm-ups, working on vocal projection and tone, and learning how to sing together and in tune. We used parts of the songs "One Love" and "Lean On Me" for these purposes. They may not even be songs we perform as a group, but it really worked on them hearing each others voices, seeing how they fit into the harmony, and trying to sing and listen at the same time. I gave solos throughout as well, to see how well the students could show their own individual personality. Their pitch recognition, projection and rhythm improved markedly in the few classes we worked this way. In the next few classes we started working on full songs, beginning with "Dancing Queen" by ABBA, "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel, and "No Mirror's In My Nana's House" by Ysaye Barnwell, the leader of the a cappella women's group "Sweet Honey in the Rock." I also purchases copies of "Jump," originally by Van Halen but made famous again in the TV show "Glee." As I told them in the first class, each student has particular challenges to overcome, and we will be keeping these in mind as we begin to work more seriously on the songs I've chosen. I look forward to continuing our rapid progress in the coming weeks.

MUSIC PERFORMANCE CREDIT BAND
The Credit Band made good progress in a number of areas in this module. We learned one rock song, "Pinball Wizard," in a hybrid of the Who and Elton John versions, one jazz/pop song, "Moondance," by Van Morrison (with extended improvisation for all the players), and I handed out the music to a musical theatre song, "Don't Rain on My Parade," by Bob Merrill Jule Styne (made famous by Barbra Streisand). We also started playing "Comes Love," a very flexible old standard, which I hope to use to demonstrate the varied ways to arrange and interpret a song.

We have a lot of new members in the band this year, and it has been a real challenge getting everyone on the same page, and finding music that challenges and stimulates the group without either going over some students' heads, or conversely boring others. "Pinball Wizard" has been a good example of the kind of song that fits this criteria.

Olivia Arges is continuing to grow and mature as a vocalist. And though we haven't had many opportunities, Sarah Chetty's improvisations are becoming more adventurous and detailed with each try. Elaine Elisabeth Parker has become very comfortable on drums, and she is trying very hard to leave that comfort zone in creating improvised fills for all the songs (I recommended she listen to Keith Moon of the Who for inspiration), and not stick so slavishly to the written page or her own memory. And it's great to have Grace Kirkpatrick with the group for the whole year this time, and she is kept busy with some quick runs on her electric violin and her sterling vocal harmonies. Her improvisations have shown more intention and promise this year as well. Newcomer Rachel Roush, a member of the Club Band last year, has been our "utility player" so far, playing piano, singing, and lately trying her hand at the bass guitar. I hope to explore even more of her musical gifts in the coming weeks, including finding a good song for her to sing as a solo. Zachariah Claypole White brings a lot of confidence and style to the class, and he has been improving in his rhythm, chord recognition, and listening skills with each class. I know that working with sheet music and following bar numbers present a challenge for Zach, and I really appreciate the effort that he puts in during and outside of class to feel comfortable working in this environment. And Brian Powell, formerly a keyboard playing in what was the "B Band" a couple of years ago, has the makings of a fine guitarist. His attack on the instrument, knowledge of music reading from his piano days, and his willingness to explore the bass guitar as well has made him a pleasure to work with. I am very excited about watching and helping this group form a personality of their own in the weeks to come.

2010-2011 Module 1

2010-10-24T15:00:00.002-04:00

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

Students have prepared well for pretesting. The homework these past two weeks has been to practice basic math facts on websites such as aaamath.com, aaa.math.com, and coolmath.com. These are great resources that can be used continually throughout the school year. Please remember that your child should only work on math for about an hour at night; if it is taking longer, please just send in a note with your student in the morning, and he or she will be excused from a notice. However, please be sure that your student is concentrating on only math for that hour.

Mathematics with Dan Hill

I took a poll at the beginning of Module One and reviewed some topics that the students seemed to think needed to be reviewed. We then entered a state of Prolonged Pretesting Purgatory from which we have since emerged, caliper-scarred and ruler-bruised, evaluated, measured, placed, and ready to tackle the labor of the year.

English with Jill Sugg

All classes engaged in review and pre-testing, including various writing assignments based on summer reading. Advanced 8/9/10 saw the film of To Kill a Mockingbird and wrote a literary analysis essay on the novel. AP Language saw the film of The Hours and has been practicing multiple choice in preparation for May. English 7/8 saw the film of "A Raisin in the Sun" and wrote a five paragraph analysis. Everyone is off to a great start and it is nice to share ideas about the summer reading. So far so good!

English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

Along with pre-testing, students in American History, World History, Civics, and Current Events have discussed 9/11 and the controversy regarding the "Ground Zero mosque." These classes have also examined challenges associated with the war in Afghanistan, and discussed how these obstacles might be successfully addressed.

High School English: Students have completed pre-testing, discussed some of their reading from over the summer, and viewed the documentary OT: Our Town about a high school production of that play in Compton, California.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Environmental Science: The school year has started with a bang in this class. After cleaning the cobwebs out of our summer brains, we all pretested successfully. The class is beginning their studies with work Biomes and Climatograms.

Human Biology: Review, Pretesting and microscopy have been the focus of this module for the Human Bio class. The students have been great laboratory practitioners and I am very excited about their futures as scientists this year.

Chemistry: Review and Pretesting was quickly mastered by this group of brainiacs. The study of atomic theory and electron configuration notation has normalized our speed of information uptake. I have enjoyed watching them get excited about learning something completely new and I love those light bulb moments that are happening.

Biology: Review, Pretesting and leaf collections has been the focus of this module for the Biology class. We have covered modern taxonomy and the 3 Domain Theory of classification along with collecting specimens around campus.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish 1: Students have learned the names of countries and capitals in the Spanish-speaking world as well as articles, gender and plural of nouns, article/noun/adjective agreement, greetings and numbers 1-100. Pre-testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.

Spanish 2: Students have reviewed vocabulary, grammar and verb tenses. Emphasis has been placed on increasing students' conversation in class. Pre-testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.

Intermediate Spanish 1: Students have reviewed vocabulary, grammar and verb tenses as well as a variety of reading selections for comprehension and discussion. Pre-Testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.

Intermediate Spanish 2: Students have reviewed vocabulary, grammar and verbs tenses as well as a variety of reading selections for comprehension and discussion. Writing samples have been used to demonstrate the correct use of grammatical structures and more complex verb tenses. Pre-Testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.

Advanced Spanish: Students in the Advanced class have reviewed vocabulary, grammar and the use of complex verb tenses, both in discussions and in writing samples. Emphasis has been placed on conversations and discussions of topics of interest to the class as well as current events. Pre-Testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

It's the beginning to what I presume will be a successful year in my physical education class! Each year I have been trying to take on a different approach to what engaging in physical activity is all about. My first year teaching here at Camelot Academy we did team and individual sports. Last year was a fitness based program. This year, I am excited to explore outdoor education. Considering my classes are almost always held outside, I feel this is a fantastic direction to go in! For the first two modules, the students will be learning about caving. Even though I only saw my Upper School classes two or three times this first module, we were able to discuss possible outdoor education units as well as learn some of the terminology and history of caving. Most lessons will be taught mixing up information, like what types of caves there are, while engaging in fitness exercises. At the end of the students second module, during conference week, they will have the opportunity to go to Bluff City, Tennessee and do some actual caving in Worley's Cave!

Music with Glenn Mehrbach

For the first music class, we talked a lot about music. I asked the students to tell me all the places they might hear music throughout their day, what purposes music might have in different situations, and about what turns a set of sounds in actual music. Then I explained about the six building blocks of music. I also played them some orchestral music, and asked them to point out the different instruments that they heard. There was a chart of musical instruments on the wall that helped students match the sounds they heard to the pictures of the instruments. Lastly, I gave them an assignment, which was to pick 3 of their favorite songs and tell me, in quantitative terms, why they liked them. I asked them to send me YouTube or other links for me to listen to the songs as well, and gave them my email address to send the results. Some of the students have still not completed the assignment.

In the second class we talked about the first building block of music: rhythm. I gave them each a percussion instrument, and we played various rhythms that I wrote on the board. We learned 4 different rhythms, and then played them all at the same time, with varying success. We learned about percussion notation, about how to describe volume and time changes, and the meaning of time signatures. After that we learned about "call and response," with the students improvising percussion patterns that the rest of the class was asked to imitate. In some of the classes we also sang a little.

In the third class I played one selection that I had chosen from each of the student's homework assignments. I asked the students to read what they had written, listened to the song, and then talked about it. I kept the conversation focused on musical terms: instrumentation, dynamics, structure, vocal quality, quality and variety of the melodic line. The students had very varied and interesting choices, and it was a learning experience for me as well.

I intend to continue this pattern throughout the semester, with one class being more theoretical, and the next experiential.

Art with Brittain Peck

As the school year begins, our art classes are focusing on observation. We have been discussing the traditions of observation in Western Art and challenging these notions by challenging ourselves to find alternate ways of seeing the world and making images which represent it. Our first lesson of the year challenged the students to observe the room in which we meet, the upstairs meeting room, in a manner other than within the traditional norms of perspective-based drawing. Examples of the students' approaches included architectural, texture rubbings, surrealistic, and compression of 3 dimensions into a flat 2 dimensional portrayal. Following our first lesson, we began a series of lessons and readings based upon the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. Based on the notion that the two hemispheres of our brain are each best equipped to handle different tasks based upon the nature of the cognitive processing associated with these tasks, the book addresses the specific correlation between right-brain processing and the acts of looking and drawing. After first discussing the differences associated with the two hemispheres of the brain, students have engaged with activities designed to help them better understand and experience the qualitative differences between Left and Right Brain processes. The activities have included a study of hand-writing and the expressive nature of hand-drawn lines, grid-based copying techniques to understand placement, proportion, and angles of lines, mirroring drawings of facial profiles to understand the difference between named objects and spatial relations, and upside-down drawings to break our recognition of objects and forms to allow ourselves to understand the complex nature of their construction rather than remaining fixed in the summarized, stereotyped understandings that we use to quickly and efficiently handle the multiple stimuli of an infinitely diverse environment. As we complete these exercises, students will be encouraged to apply their heightened observational and drawing skills to making their own observations and observational art based upon their own unique perspective of the world around them.

Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson

In all of the classes a handout was given which contained materials that each student is responsible to bring to each Drama Class.

We spent some time during one class period going over a handout about "How to be a grown-up", which was about ways of taking responsibility for one's own actions. Since socialization and self-esteem are such an integral part of this class, I felt this information useful as reference material to be available to each of my students.

In all of the Dramatic Arts classes we started the semester with getting back into the practice of public speaking by sharing with the class some highlights of our summer.

The assignment for the end of the first module and for Module 2, is to use the "summer highlight" as a prompt for writing a short skit. Each student will act as the writer, director, and performer of their skit using other members of the class as actors. Each student must perform in his/her skit but not necessarily as themselves. I am excited to see what these talented students produce.

A handout was given to aid the students with their skit writing. It was emphasized that this be a "short" skit, performance time no more than a minute or two. Due to the size of the classes, students may be asked to perform in more than one skit, and I did not want them to have to learn too many lines which could overwhelm them. This exercise will be a starting point for more scriptwriting assignments and character studies that we will be doing during this semester.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

VOCAL ENSEMBLE CLUB
I've only had one chance to meet with the Vocal Performance Club, but it was a very productive session. We learned about what everyone expected from the class, talked about any songs or types of music they might be interested in performing, and I told them what I would like to explore for each of them in the coming year. Then I gave them some exercises to help find out everyone's vocal range. We ended the class by learning and practicing the harmonies to Bob Marley's "One Love." After a few tries they began to have a wonderful blend. We also sang a little bit of "Twist and Shout" which allowed each of them to show off the solo vocal skills. It is my hope for the class to explore both of these aspects of vocal performance, harmony group singing and solo stylistic singing, as well as learn how to add movement to our singing arrangements. I was impressed with the overall talent of the students, and am looking forward to the months ahead.

MUSIC PERFORMANCE CREDIT BAND
I've only had a chance to meet with the Music Performance Class twice, but we accomplished a lot in those two sessions. The first day was spent mostly plugging everything in and making sure it worked, talking to each student about their expectations for the class, finding out personal favorites in terms of songs and genres, and letting them know my expectations and hopes for the class. We ended up playing a little, but not too much. The second class we started to learn "Pinball Wizard," in a hybrid arrangement of the original by The Who and the version by Elton John. Since we have a very varied experience level in the group this year, with some students having years of experience both reading traditional sheet music and playing their instrument, and others having only read guitar tablature and having less playing time under their belts, it will take a few weeks to find a good way for everyone to work together. But from the way things went on Wednesday, I am very encouraged that this process will lead to terrific results. Each player has a unique and powerful voice, and I look forward to the challenge of finding a way for each of them to express that voice successfully, and also work in harmony to create wonderful music together.

2009-2010 Module 9

2010-04-29T11:28:00.001-04:00

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.

2009-2010 Module 8

2010-04-14T14:56:00.001-04:00

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

Each student has been working hard to keep up with his or her math pace requirements. Many students have exceeded these requirements with incredible success.

English with Jill Sugg

Advanced Placement Literature is reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. They finished that novel over Spring Break as well as the play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" I applaud them for their ambitions and work ethic.

Both English 7/8/9 and Advanced English 8/9 read The Things They Carried, a part fiction/part memoir of the Vietnam War which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Classes were privileged to hear a speaker who actually went to the war in 1969. I was very proud of the students for their maturity and the excellent questions they asked.

English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

American History: Students examined the election of 1812, the introduction of the income tax, and the role of propaganda/public relations/advertising in the shaping of modern society during the 1920s.

Civics: Students evaluated the recently passed health care reform legislation reflecting on our previous discussions of that topic.

Current Events: Students practiced critically analyzing a documentary film by viewing Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. They also discussed health care reform.

English 10/11/12: Students have embarked on a creative writing unit, the early results of which can be seen at ten11twelve.wordpress.com!

World History: Students learned about the rise of totalitarian states in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, including Stalin's USSR, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany. They have also studied the role of propaganda in mass society.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Environmental Science: Water pollution and prevention have been much debated topics in this class. Students are analyzing the long term effects of individual actions. I am very proud of them for maintaining such high expectations from themselves as it pertains to their environment. We did analyze water quality from samples taken from Forest Hills Park. The students found relatively high levels of phosphorus which is an indicator of some type of pollution.

Human Biology: The dissection unit was a success for this class. Everyone completed the study and learned a great deal. I am impressed by the maturation of this class this year. Moving into high school and college level texts while in the 7th and 8th grades is notable.

Chemistry: Addition reactions and substitution reactions along with polymerization has been the focus for the chemistry students in the last module. Students have completed many labs, from super smelly to bouncy to edible, organic chemistry has been a blast.

Biology: Protozoans and their identification has been the challenge for the biology students this module. Students chased and identified several species of protozoan that we cultured from Forest Hills Park. The good news is that we found no fecal coliforms or ameoboid organisms, much improved from prior years.

Physics with Dan Hill

This module the physics students did a couple of labs to examine just how personally powerful they are. Next up: rotational mechanics.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Introduction to Spanish / (US)—Verb conjugation challenges have been going strong in this class as students master regular and and irregular reflexive and stem-changing verbs. They have covered Episodes 12 & 3 of Destinos and are beginning to study Argentina.

Introduction to Spanish / (MG & US)&Students are working very hard to learn regular and irregular preterits of reflexive verbs. They are progressing in their study of Destinos Episodes 7 & 8 and are uncovering new information leading to the search of the mystery character. This is a very energetic and enthusiastic class and everyone is enjoying the verb and vocabulary challenges.

Spanish 2&Students continue to read and discuss the early history of Mexico and have learned about the different indigenous groups present in the area in the early 1500s. They are also learning grammar and mastering verb tenses of regular, irregular and stem-changing verbs.

Intermediate Spanish&The class continues to have daily animated discussions in Spanish of topics of interest, current events and school related activities. They have watched a contemporary video from Spain and have discussed at length the main character's dilemma, motivation and persuasive ability to accomplish his goal. We have emphasized understanding cultural differences in behavior and social interaction of adolescents in Spanish speaking countries.

Advanced Spanish&The advanced class is involved in a comprehensive study of verb tenses, idiomatic expressions, colloquial phrases and false cognates. These are the more rigorous aspects of reading, writing, comprehending and speaking Spanish. Students have daily discussions of current events and topics of interest to the class which they bring to the class.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

The students finished off an Ultimate Frisbee unit over these last few weeks. I was very impressed with their energy level, positive attitude, and teamwork. I love how carefree Frisbee is and the fact that you can pick up a game pretty much anywhere. I think the students shared that enthusiasm. I hope to see some of them on the Ultimate team this Spring! I have also been preparing them for our upcoming gym outings. As I mentioned in the last update, I have been planning to take the students to a fitness gym once a month. The plan was to start this March, but I have postponed it until mid April. They have been working diligently on their own individualized exercise plans. The plan is for Mike and I to drive the students to the gym. They will have about 40 to 45 minutes to do their own exercises. Some students are paired up and some students are not depending on how familiar they are with a gym atmosphere. However, the first time we go, all students will be given a quick tour of the gym so that they are able to easily locate what equipment is where. They will also be given a run through with how to use specific equipment related to the exercises they chose. Mike and I will be monitoring them at all times to help them out when needed and to make sure students stay on task. I am really looking forward to giving them this kind of experience! They seem to be really excited about the opportunity to try something new and to focus on goals they specifically set for themselves. If you have any questions or concerns, please send an email or phone call my way. Thank you!

Art with Brittain Peck

Upon completing our lesson and application of the various methods to transfer the students' drawings to their woodblocks, the students have been involved in an intensive cutting process. Carving the blocks has occupied a majority of class time over the course of Module 8, with reiterations of the basic carving principles and techniques to facilitate the students' grasp and retention of the techniques. As carving drew to a close for the majority of the students, we were introduced to fundamentals of inking a block to ensure quality results over numerous printing runs. In the last week of the module, the students moved primarily into printing, with upcoming grades to be based on the students' approach and completion to their woodcut. I am more than impressed with the quality of the students' visual imagery and thankful for their attentive focus in and out of class.

Music with Daniel Raimi

The Upper School Elective has had a busy few weeks working through our core elements and beginning to experiment with some other projects. Students have been learning the basic elements of music theory, including construction of scales, chords, keys, and a number of other elements of "Classical" European music techniques. Along with these elements, we've made sure that they all make sense in our ears, by doing extensive ear training exercises. In these exercises, students are asked to identify specific musical phrases in technical terminology. They are asked to identify intervals (2 notes played next to each other), chords and their relationship to one another (we've focused on the I, IV, V, and vi chords), and specific rhythms which they listen to and then are asked to notate on paper. Students had a take-home quiz, and the results were generally very good. Along with these projects, students had a visit from the master Zimbabwean mbira musician Cosmas Magaya, who's doing a 5-week residency at Duke, and has been working there with a friend of mine. Cosmas came in and showed us how his 22-key thumb piano works, told us a little history behind the instrument and his own life, and taught us about the construction of the mbira. Students had the chance to play some of his mbiras, and listen to a master musician perform up close! In the coming weeks, students will be making presentations on music that they write, perform, or study. Choice of pieces will be left up to the students, and I'm looking forward to hearing their performances, and learning about their insights into some great music.

Drama with Roni Peterson

During this module, the students continued to journal. We worked on the play, "13 Ways to Screw Up a College Interview". The students took on different characters, and then traded characters that they wanted to act out. It was interesting to see the different interpretations of the same character done by different students and the reactions by the class to the performances. I am hoping that some of the acts will be performed at the Evening of the Arts.

We watched the original version of "the Miracle Worker " in class and then scenes from a revised version and discussed the differences in direction, acting, color versus black and white filming, etc. It was the consensus that the original was better in all aspects. The students were tested on some of the "film" vocabulary terms and will study and be tested on the Camera Dept. and Electric Department terms in Module 9. An original monologue is to be written using the character from their journal. It is to be one minute long and will be graded on content, and performance and on how well they are able to take direction. I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching this group of students. They are all very talented and creative. I am in the process of reading the journals and I must say they are more than I expected! I am thrilled.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

CLUB CLASS

During this module we firmed up our song list for the rest of the year, and continued to refine the material we've already chosen. We now have a solo or solo song for each member of the group. Lance will sing the Freddy Mercury part on Queen's "Somebody To Love," Bri will sing lead on Bob Marley's "One Love," Sophie is doing a wonderful job with Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am," Rachel is just getting started with the Counting Crows song "Accidentally in Love," Alec is making good progress with his singing and guitar playing on John Mayer's "Waiting On The World To Change," and Kriea has solo parts in "Imagine," "Lean On Me," and is spending a lot of time improving her technique on the drum set.

As far as group songs, the group is really starting to gel on "I Get Around," with lots of added percussion and hand claps, and much more confident harmonies from Sophie, Kriea and Lance. "Imagine" has a wonderful feeling about it as well, with both solos and harmonies sounding more assured and beautiful each time we rehearse it. "Lean On Me" still needs the most work, but it is the most complex song as well. I am hoping that one is ready for the end of year performances.

CREDIT BAND
We spent the bulk of this module really digging into the Yes song "Roundabout." It is a very complex piece of music, and a real challenge for all the students. I am very pleased with the concentration and progress on this piece, and look forward to everyone hearing the finished project for at least one of our end-of-year performances. Besides that, we continued to refine songs we'd learned previously, spending a good amount of time on "We Are Golden" by Mika and "Never Alone" by Barlow Girl. I introduced 4 versions of the jazz standard "Autumn Leaves," to expand our improvisational abilities, and learn how to be creative with the arrangement and style of a song. We also started learning 2 of the original songs that I assigned the class to write in the last module. We made good progress on Josh Stallings' "Perfection," and started work on Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach's "Camelot A Band for Winners." Lastly, we took a stab at reconfiguring two of the first semester songs, since the make-up of the class has changed since then. Grace and Josh both stepped up to fill out the harmonies on "In My Life" and "You've Really Got A Hold On Me." Overall, class time has been very productive.

2009-2010 Module 7

2010-03-10T21:14:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-2010 Module 6

2010-02-24T21:03:00.000-05:00

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.

2009-2010 Module 5

2010-01-21T06:52:00.001-05:00

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

Each and every student has been working diligently on keeping pace in mathematics. With the start of second semester students will review any areas that showed up as weaknesses on their exams before moving on to new material.

English with Jill Sugg

English 7/8/9 read The First Part Last by Coretta Scott King award winning adolescent author Angela Johnson. The book dealt with the harsh realities of being a teen parent.

Advanced English 8/9 and Advanced Placement Literature read J. D. Salinger's classic novel The Catcher in The Rye. I was fortunate enough to be in New York City at the time and sent the ADV 8/9 students emails regarding my travels to some famous Holden Caulfield spots including the duck pond in Central Park South and the carousel which Phoebe rides in the book's most famous scene.

English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

American History: We have examined the concept of Jacksonian democracy, looked at policies regarding Indian removal and relocation, and discussed the debate over slavery in the decades preceding the Civil War.

Civics: We have followed up on two topics covered earlier in the year, namely the economy and how it is recovering, and the status of the health care legislation currently before Congress.

Current Events: We have continued to look at the economy while also reviewing for semester exams.

English 10/11/12: Students finished reading A Clockwork Orange and revised written work completed over the course of the semester.

World History: We have examined the Middle Ages, with an emphasis on the contrast between Europe and the Middle East during these years.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Environmental Science: The class spent the end of the semester working on a cumulative housing project. Their goal was to build a "green" house within an allotted budget. Students then had to relate the project to the semester objectives. I am very proud of their efforts and can't wait for them to actually build these homes someday.

Human Biology: The Human Biology class finished their muscle unit this module and worked diligently on clinical diagnosis. I am quite impressed by their problem solving skills and look forward to challenging them more in the future.

Chemistry: Quantum Mechanics was the theme for the last module in this class. Students also concluded the semester study by making some candy via stoichiometric calculations.

Biology: Genetics, Genomics and the human condition have been very motivating to this class. Students have completed several laboratory assignments and activities in the module, from protein synthesis to the structure of DNA, hands on has been the name of the game.

Physics with Dan Hill

The physics class spent Module 5 talking about momentum and banging things together. With the new semester comes a new concept (and, ultimately, what it's all about): finally, we are looking at energy.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Introduction to Spanish—Students completed the study of Episodes 5 and 6 of Destinos and learned new vocabulary, irregular verbs in the present tense and cultural information about Sevilla, Spain and Madrid.

Spanish 2—Students completed several grammar packets to reinforce newly learned concepts, studied present tense structures and irregular verbs and thematic vocabulary. They continued studying Episodes 36 and 37 of the Destinos series. Daily classroom conversations focus on the unraveling of intriguing sub-plots in this family mystery.

Intermediate Spanish—Students read a short comparison/contrast novel, Hermanas, and had daily classroom discussions (in Spanish, of course!) about the characters and the plot. We studied literary devices and focused on character development during our conversations.

Advanced Spanish - Students continued to review advanced grammar concepts, paying particular attention to passive voice, perfect tenses, and uses of indicative vs. subjunctive mood. They wrote compositions and had daily classroom presentations and discussions about current events.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

Before I give my module update, I would like to state the obvious and bring up how cold it has been outside! Personally, I am always up for anything if it has to do with being outside, but sometimes my students don't share the same enthusiasm. However, it may help them to cope if there were gentle reminders to have them dress appropriately for physical education class. In addition to an increased heart rate, hats, coats, mittens, gloves, tennis shoes, and long socks will help keep them warm!

Our class routine has been the same, with a fitness class and a game day each week. The only difference is, I've decided to turn up the dial a little and have implemented a semester project full of meaningful, applicable, educational experiences and revelations. In other words, yes, they will be doing some research and writing. That's right, there can be work outside of being physically active in physical education class! Who knew? I realize most of the students aren't used to the idea of having homework in a physical education class, but I have great faith in their success as well as your support. I have promised the students the project will not be too stressful, and, to be honest, if they do what they are supposed to do when it is supposed to be done, the project should be a breeze.

I'll try not to overburden you with all the details, but just to be sure your children are giving you accurate updates of the project, I'll give you a brief overview. I consider this project to be a lifestyle analysis project. I feel the true value of education is not necessarily how much you learn, but how much you apply what you learn to your day-to-day life. This especially holds true for health and physical education. My intention is to help the students evaluate their own routines and decisions related to diet and exercise, teach them what it means to eat healthily and exercise regularly, and to guide them in making the best decisions they can about their health.

We'll be taking a look at:

Nutrients
Daily recommended intake
Caloric intake
What effects what we eat
Obstacles to eating healthy and ways to overcome those obstacles
Benefits to eating healthy and exercising regularly
Energy balance (positive, neutral, negative)
Exercise (duration, frequency, intensity, type)
Heart rate
Obstacles to maintaining regular physical activity and ways to overcome those obstacles

The way I have this project set up is to do a little here and there in class on rainy days. However, the students will have some work they need to finish outside of class. At this point the students should have already completed a diet and activity log. This log is to help come up with an accurate reading on how much energy they are expending and how many calories they are generally consuming. Their energy balance will be determined from this log as well as the evaluation of many of the items listed above. The final step in the project involves writing a short paper.

I am really excited to see some light bulbs go off with the completion of this project! If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send me an email.

Art with Brittain Peck

Module 5 has involved the students in an in-depth exploration of a form that is currently working to redefine the artist's and viewer's roles in the art-making process. We have familiarized ourselves with the work of a group of artists, primarily the work of Lee Walton, whom many see as the leading innovator in what many are referring to as "Experimentalism." Some of the primary concepts that the students have been challenged with implementing are the ability of art and aesthetically-based thinking to integrate directly into the fabric of everyday life and experience. We began our exploration with a rather simple lesson in which the students were given a single sheet of white 8.5-by-11-inch typing paper. The students were then charged to find some way to use this paper as a medium to record some aspect of their life during our time together in art class. Some examples of what the students did included making tally-marks to monitor a student's heart rates, using the paper as a barrier between the student's hand and the door knob of the school's front door as the student repeatedly opened and walked through the door, dribbling a basketball on the paper for the duration of the class, and marking marks on the paper that mimic the movement of a guitar student's hands as he strums and plays the guitar. As our study of this subject progressed, the students were encouraged to integrate their own interests in dance, music, math, sports, family, leisure, and email communication into their work. The students also employed a variety of visual media including video, paint, pencil, paper-cutting, and photography, but were encouraged to involve such varied media based upon the medium's ability to serve the student's overall goals in their work. In doing so, we emphasized the concept that art-making originates from a need to communicate, and that the tools and media we use in creating art must be chosen because of and used for their communicative properties. As an instructor, the students' work during this module has been some of the most rewarding for me to observe, as I have seen the students engage with the concepts and assignments in ways that are directed by the students' own interests and perspectives of themselves and the world around them.

Music with Daniel Raimi

Upper Grades students have focused throughout Module 5 on preparing and presenting original projects that focus on songs that have specific political and social histories and narratives. Students selected any song they chose, and prepared a 5–10 minute presentation on the social and political context of the piece of music. Some of these pieces led to fascinating discussions, and we turned several of the traditional meanings of classic songs on their heads, analyzing pieces like "Born in the USA," "The Times They Are A' Changin'," and "Sunday Bloody Sunday." We got into great discussions about several of these pieces, leading to extended arguments about the modern role of technology, religious conflicts, and American politics. It was a lot of fun!

Drama with Roni Peterson

The students continued doing many different types of improvisation exercises. I worked with them on the five "W's" of acting—who, what, where, why, and when. The 5 "W's" are the basis for all acting exercises. They have been given a phrase or a situation, and then two students work together on the improvisation. One of the exercises that the students really enjoy is called "Freeze Tag." Two students are given a prompt, a word or situation, and they start a scene. I then say "freeze," and the two "actors" must freeze in position. I choose a student to take the place of one of the two, and then when I say "action" a new scene is started by the new "actor." It must be a completely new story line based on the positions of the actors when they were frozen.

In the 10th–12th grades, we finished watching the movie Doubt and discussed it. The 9th grade class will get to finish watching the movie during Module 6. We will begin working with comic strips and using them as prompts for original scripted scenes that two or more students will write and act together during class time.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

CLUB BAND
This module was mostly concerned with preparing repertoire for our performance at Southpoint Mall on December 16. There was good concentration by all, and we learned a tremendous amount of music in a very short amount of time. We tried to give everyone a solo, and let those who chose to explore another instrument. Rachel Roush did extremely well playing the drums on "Little Drummer" Boy" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Kriea Giffin-Dean helped out by playing sleigh bells on a couple of songs as well. Lance Wilkes really excelled in showmanship, singing with gusto and showing a lot of personality at all times. After a tentative start on "Jingle Bell Rock," Alec Porter played his guitar parts with good attack and style. Bri Olesen was the definition of a 'trooper,' showing up to sing despite having been sick with a fever most of the day. Thanks for your commitment to the group, Bri! And Sophie Reiter did a solid job on all of her parts, accomplishing the often difficult and tricky alto parts well.

At our last class before Winter Break we spent the time going over our Southpoint performance and looking ahead to the new semester and year. The students gave their input as to which songs they'd like to do and what they'd like to accomplish in the class. This input was very helpful to me, and will be useful as I plan the second semester music. After just getting to know each other, and then all of the deadlines in the first semester (Academic Fair performance, Southpoint performance), it's always good in the second semester to be able to not be in such a hurry. We can take more time to work on style, arranging, composing, music theory, and allowing students to stretch themselves with other instruments, or with vocal styles they may not be as comfortable with. I look forward to the next few months.

Lastly, please put these dates in your books. They are the 2 likely performances for the Club Band in the coming year:

May 7—Evening of the Arts
May 20—Broad Street Cafe

CREDIT BAND
As with the Club Band, we spent most of this module preparing for the Southpoint performance. We dug up some old favorites from last year and added a few new ones. I felt the performance turned out quite well. We were able to give each one of the class members a time to shine. Viola Samadi showed great stage presence and excellent vocal style in her rendition of "Santa Baby." All the instrumentalists in the group did a good job on the "Linus and Lucy Theme," the transition to and from the swing middle section was just right. Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach and Olivia Arges had a lot of fun with "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Lennon and Josh did an excellent job sharing the lead vocal on "How Do You Spell Channukkahh?", and Elizabeth "Lissy" Parker really came through on the very difficult drum part. I know she worked hard the previous week to get it right, and the effort really showed. Thanks for your dedication, Lissy! Sarah Chetty reprised her rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman," with nearly flawless accompaniment by the rest of the group. And we ended up the performance with a solid version of "White Christmas," with everyone playing together with real confidence and style.

2009-2010 Module 4

2009-12-05T10:30:00.001-05:00

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

Students have been working diligently in their math courses to keep pace. Many of the students have been able to meet their semester requirements and several others are working ahead of schedule.

English with Jill Sugg

Students in Advanced Placement Literature and English 8/9 Advanced read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Students did a timed in-class writing assignment on Hawthorne's use of symbolism and characterization to facilitate theme. AP students had writing mini-conferences on their individual strengths and weaknesses at Barnes & Noble where they also drank coffee and perused the shelves.

English 7/8/9 finished the adolescent novel Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, and we all wrote notes to author Jordan Sonnenblick. He wrote us a nice collective e-mail response back and even wrote to some students personally. Students used the last week of the module to revise their Academic Fair papers per the feedback they received on their rough drafts and to read their AR books. Students got a 25 word vocabulary list which we went over in class. They will be tested on these words on Friday, December 4th.

Thank you to everyone for all their work on Academic Fair papers and presentations.

English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

American History: Students have examined four major events in the early history of the American republic: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Alien and Sedition Acts, Marbury v. Madison, and the War of 1812.

Civics: Students have concluded a unit on the future of US policy in Afghanistan and moved on to a brief unit on the War on Drugs. Students looked in-depth at the current controversy over medical marijuana policy in California and other states that have disregarded federal law on the issue.

Current events: Students have learned some basics of US government in the context of health care reform and US policy regarding Afghanistan. We have also started to discuss some basic economic concepts, including scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, and supply and demand.

English 10/11/12: Students have wrapped up The Handmaid's Tale and have finally concluded their two dystopian novels for the year, much to their relief. More importantly, they have finished Academic Fair and the class looks forward to diving full-steam into their post-Thanksgiving reading and writing.

World History: Students learned about Eastern religion and cultures, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Environmental Science: We have made the transition from conservation to evolution in the last module. Students watched the movie Gorillas In the Mist about the acclaimed researcher Diane Fossey and her work with Gorillas.

Human Biology: The study of the skeletal system has been the focus of the last module. Students completed their first oral exam by identifying the major bones of the human body. We are also having great fun learning medical terminology. I am very proud of these students for their dedication and hard work.

Chemistry: Mole concept and equation writing have been the focus of the last module. Students also completed labs to reinforce the concepts covered.

Biology: Successful completion of our study of cellular respiration focusing on the ever popular yet somewhat confusing Krebs cycle took up most of the last module. The students were amazing troopers and powered through the concept with pride.

Physics with Dan Hill

Module 4 saw the physics class looking at forces and Newton's 2.5 laws of motion (the first one is actually Gallileo's, and is rendered redundant by the second). You should ask them to flex their by-now-well-developed Right Triangle Trigonometry muscles for you. Next module we will pick up momentum, and hope to carry it through the Winter Break (ha, ha!).

Spanish with Celia Battle

Introduction to Spanish—Students have studied Episodes 3, 4 and, 5 of Destinos as they follow the protagonist to Sevilla, Spain. They have learned about the geography, history and culture of southern Spain and are studying the present tense conjugation of -ar verbs.

Spanish 2 (Destinos)—Students have studied Episode 35 of Destinos, are reading a brief novel, El sueño de Linda, and continue to learn about Latin American countries. We are also studying verb tenses and reviewing grammar.

Intermediate Spanish—Students finished reading the brief novel ¿Dónde está Eduardo?, learned all of the new vocabulary and wrote and performed skits related to the plot. They continue to write on the class blog and have learned vocabulary about illnesses in general and swine flu in particular. As an extra activity the students summarized their Academic Fair projects in Spanish and presented them to the class.

Advanced Spanish —Advanced students continue to be engaged daily in stimulating discussions about philosophy, current events, and many other topics of interest to the class. They have reviewed the use of grammar in their writings and presented summaries in Spanish of their Academic Fair projects.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

As usual, Upper School has continued to work hard with their fitness classes. I've incorporated a variety of exercises and modifications to keep the students engaged as well as challenged. Recently, they have also completed a short activity, breaking down their diets and taking a look at the nutritional content.

Art with Brittain Peck

Module 4 has given each student the opportunity to re-address the concept of "school photos", however this time it has been in the manner of their choosing. Working as each others' photographers and models, each student was able to plan, compose, and shoot his or her photo in a manner that he or she felt best reflected his or her relationship to school and his or her concept of self. We began by reviewing the basics of lighting, composition, point-of-view, and cropping as these concepts relate to photography. Once the students had each had an opportunity to shoot each others' photos, we began to work with the photos in a digital format. The computer provided students the ability to edit their own photos for the purposes of their choosing, while also re-establishing their understanding of basic visual concepts of light contrast, saturation, and color relationships. Throughout the entire photographic process of capturing and editing their photos, the students have been encouraged to consider the intended presentation and audience for their photos, whether it be as a poster, music album cover art, or for publication in the Camelot Academy year book. I have been both pleased and impressed with the level of attention and interest that each student has shown over the duration of this module. I am also enthusiastic about the future possibilities for the students to continue to work with photo editing and manipulation in programs such as Adobe Photoshop. Students will continue to work with photos, as well as text layout and graphic design in Module 5. Students that are interested in working on the development of the school year book will also have the opportunity to apply this skill set in a tangible publication.

Music with Daniel Raimi

Upper School has been focused this module on finishing up our Garage Band programming of the song "Should I Stay or Should I Go." At this point, most students have finished programming the computer to perform the song. Our next step is to write original lyrics and record them so that we can get the songs up on YouTube! 10–12 graders have already begun this process, and 7–9 will get going with it before the holidays.

After we've finished recording our original versions of "Should I Stay or Should I Go," I'm going to give students special assignments to present a song or piece of music that has an interesting political or social story behind it. More on that to come next week.

Drama with Roni Peterson

During Module 4, we have been working on monologues. The students performed the monologue as though they were actors and I was the director. I gave them direction on how to use the five "W's" of acting—who, what, where,when, and why. The 5 "W's" are the basis for all acting exercises. By thinking of the "W's", it forces the actor to understand more fully the character he or she is portraying, and the performance truly changes for the better. I was very impressed with the commitment the students put into this assignment.

We have started an exercise that teaches how to have a beginning, a middle and an end when doing an improvisation. One student starts by making a statement like, "It's a lovely day." The next student will then say, "What you are saying is that it's a lovely day, so I will..." and then they add something that would logically come next like, "So I will go for a walk." The next student will then say, "What you are saying is that you will take a walk, so I will..." and so forth. Each statement must move the story along logically and come to an end. We will continue using this exercise during Module 5.

Another exercise we have started is picking a word out of a bag and then having two students use their word in an improvisation. They must say the word sometime during the scene and I emphasize that the improvisation should have a logical beginning, middle and end. To make it harder, we go from two students to three, then four, and so on. It is a challenge to be able to use random words logically in an improvisation.

In the 10th through 12th grade class, we are watching the movie Doubt. It is adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning play, and I am showing it because of the incredible acting. All of the main actors were nominated for Academy Awards. I feel it is important to expose the students to movies where acting and story are foremost and not the special effects. We will continue watching this movie in Module 5 as it takes a few periods due to the length of the film.

During Module 5, I will be handing out various comic strips cut out of the newspaper, and we'll use those as prompts for the students to take the characters and create a short scene. We will also be working with "Open Scenes".

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

CLUB CLASS

This module was primarily concerned with preparing for the Academic Fair performance. We decided on the two songs to perform, worked hard on hearing the correct harmonies as well as our presentation, and did what I felt was a terrific performance at the fair. I look forward to working on some holiday music when we return from fall break, and then finishing up on the other songs we've been working on, as well as starting some new material suggested by the students.

CREDIT CLASS

This module was primarily concerned with preparing for the Academic Fair performance. We decided on the three songs to perform, worked hard on hearing the correct harmonies, playing together as a band, sharpening and augmenting our instrumental solos, and thinking about and practicing our visual presentation. The activity culminated in what was an excellent performance at the fair. We also continued to add measures to "Roundabout," and to flesh out the vocal parts on the song as well. We had a very helpful vocal session with Viola and Olivia, with Lennon accompanying, when the other band members were absent, and got a good handle on the harmony parts, gaining confidence in the art of singing harmonies together. I look forward to working on some holiday music when we return from fall break, and then finishing up on the other songs we've been working on, as well as starting some new material suggested by the students.

2009-2010 Module 3

2009-11-02T15:08:00.000-05:00

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

Students have been working diligently and are working according to schedule in their respective math programs.

I would like to remind all students and parents that two notebooks are needed for math class. If your student does not have a second notebook please have it on or before November 4th.

English with Jill Sugg

Students in English 7/8/9 worked on their Academic Fair papers in class and began reading the adolescent novel Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie.

Advanced Placement Literature and English 8/9 Advanced read Shakespeare's "Othello" and marveled at the cleverness of the evil Iago. They are seeing the film and will test after a review.

All students have drafted an outline and a Works Cited Page in MLA format for their Academic Fair project. They continue to work on their rough drafts now due in entirety on Tuesday, November 3rd.

English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

American History: Students have been learning about the Revolutionary War and the social, economic, and political climate of the newly independent states.

Civics: Students concluded their case study of health care reform and have moved onto examining US policy in Afghanistan.

Current events: The class has been examining the dilemmas President Obama faces as he makes a decision regarding troop levels in Afghanistan.

English 10/11/12: Students continue work on their Academic Fair papers and have started reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

World History: Students have learned about the origins of Christianity in the context of the Roman Empire.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Environmental Science: Population Ecology has been the topic during this module. Students have analyzed data and examined exponential growth curves. Coincidentally we are also looking at environmental factors that affect human health. Stay tuned for the Environmental Science tribute to the CDC and WHO.

Human Biology: Students have discovered that the expression "skin deep" is much more complicated than first thought. The integumentary system and associated structures as well as the medical terminology that go along with it have been the focus of the last module.

Chemistry: Mole concept, percentage composition, empirical and molecular formulas have kept the chemistry class busy in Module 3. Students have mastered tests and related laboratory activities.

Biology: Mastering a comprehensive exam and the completion of plant collections was the culminating activity of our botany unit. The collections are extraordinary and will be on display during Academic Fair.

Physics with Dan Hill

This module the physics students did a laboratory activity that involved hurling balls off the roof of the building to investigate the relationship between the horizontal and vertical components of the velocities of projectiles (they found none). There was also much gnashing of teeth as we solved some problems involving motion in two dimensions. In Module 4 we will finish up our overview of 2-D motion, and begin looking at forces and momentum.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Introduction to Spanish—We have covered episodes 1 and 2 of "Destinos," have learned the vocabulary and uses of the verbs 'ser' and 'estar' in the present tense. Students are using a Spanish grammar website to practice newly learned material. They are expected to do exercises on the website at least twice a week.

Spanish 2 (Destinos)—We have learned about El Salvador and Nicaragua, studied episodes 32-34 in "Destinos" and the present tense of first, second and third conjugation verbs. Students are using a Spanish grammar website to practice newly learned vocabulary and grammar. They are expected to do exercises on the website at least twice a week.

Intermediate Spanish—We are reading a short novel, ¿Dónde está Eduardo? and have had classroom discussions about the characters, plot and vocabulary. Daily conversations are going strong as students enjoy engaging peers in animated conversations about current events and other topics of interest such as the swine flu epidemic and the war in Afghanistan.

Advanced Spanish—Students have read short stories that focus on mystery, fantasy and surrealism. We have analyzed and discussed them and have compiled extensive vocabulary lists derived from these readings. Daily class discussions are motivating students to introduce a variety of interesting topics for conversation. Students are using a Spanish grammar website to strengthen and increase their knowledge and use of various verb tenses.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

We have continued with our fitness classes, rotating between upper body, lower body, and jogging and conditioning. Recently, my 10th–12th grade class bumped into Lyon Park's indoor track and was able to run there instead of Orchard Park. The students seemed to be excited about having a flat place to run and most of them beat their mile times by at least a minute!

Art with Brittain Peck

We began by examining the visual and narrative fundamentals of character design. We explored a variety of lessons to explore design concepts such as rotational symmetry, color contrasts, and 2 point perspective. The latter portion of our instruction this module has leaned towards observational techniques, primarily value based drawings focusing on observed light and shadow as a means to understand and describe the observed world around us. The students have displayed a great interest in creating art and attempting new media and techniques. We also discussed the students' goals and interests in pursuing art throughout the academic year, in particular, the development of each student's individual interests.

Music with Daniel Raimi

Upper School students have continued to work on developing our skills in Garage Band. Along with programming original drum loops and working with a variety of virtual instruments, we began to lay out a template for the song "Should I Stay or Should I Go," by the Clash. We programmed drums, keyboards, and in some cases, a bass line to lay the groundwork for a songwriting project we're going to start in the next couple of weeks. Each class also had a discussion about the song "Jolene," by Dolly Parton. It's one of my favorite songs, and I was interested to hear the students' take on it. While many people think of Dolly Parton as a ditsy Barbie-doll type, I made the case for her as one of the greatest living American musicians. Some students agreed, and some didn't, but we had an excellent discussion!

Drama with Roni Peterson

The students continued with scripted phone conversations from Module 2 that they had written and performed. Monologues were introduced and each student got to pick a monologue to memorize and perform. We will be using the monologues as the first true "acting" experience where I will act as if I were a director and they were auditioning for a part in a play.

Two independent short films that I had worked on locally, were shown in the 9th through 12th grades, as examples of acting skills that we had been discussing in class. It was interesting getting feedback from the students about the films. I wanted them to understand the difference between acting in a film and acting in a play.

We have started doing acting warm-ups that all actors of all ages do to perfect their craft. These exercises are for voice and improving diction and pronunciation of words. Tongue twisters were introduced and we will continue to do more of those as they are helpful in training the student to think the word before speaking the word. Try saying "selfish shellfish", or "Unique New York", 5 times fast! Not so easy is it? These exercises are not only beneficial but fun to do. Other warm-up exercises will be introduced during Module 4.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

CREDIT CLASS

First of all, the different strains of flu going around visited members of this class as well, and made it difficult to rehearse, not knowing who would show up each day. But we used the time as best with could, focusing on whoever was well.

We have been working primarily on three songs in the class: "Fever" and "In My Life," which we started during the last module, and "You Really Got A Hold On Me," which we started this module. We also are slowly but surely tackling "Roundabout" by "Yes," which I feel will be a year long project. It is a very complex piece, but I'm certain within the grasp of our students. For "Fever" we continued to experiment with vocal harmonies, instrumental solos, and ways to heighten and lower the dynamics of the song. The song has taken on a wonderful shape, largely due to the contributions of the students themselves. "In My Life" continues to mature, with 3 part harmonies by Olivia, Viola and Josh being a prominent feature. "You Really Got A Hold On Me," based on the arrangement by The Beatles, is taking shape as well, and is presenting unexpected challenges to each member of the group.

Elisabeth Parker has really stepped up to the plate with her drumming, and her work away from the class really shows. Olivia Arges is proving to have a great ear for harmony, and a wonderful vocal sound on her solos. We are working on getting her to be more expressive physically during her singing. Although I know Viola much prefers solo vocal work, she has been a real 'trooper' and taken the challenge of harmony singing, in often unaccustomed vocal ranges, to heart. She is becoming much more comfortable both as a soloist and in harmony. Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach continues to improve on his soloing, in technique and expression, and has made good use of his pedals for different effects. He also has lots of ideas for arrangements, and has really expanded on many of the printed parts that he was given. As well as playing the key bass for a lot of the songs, Josh Stallings is really solid on his harmony singing this year. I don't know why he kept it under wraps all last year, because he has a wonderful vocal sound. His 'bass playing' adds a lot to the group as well. Sarah Chetty plays whatever I give her with accuracy and style, and has begun to explore more creative ways of both soloing and livening up her rhythm parts, and trying to not just 'play the paper' at all times.

CLUB CLASS

As with the credit class, the different strains of flu going around visited members of this class as well, presenting the same rehearsal challenges.

After a few exploratory sessions, I feel that the Club class has really found it's feet, and look forward to each session We continued to refine "I Met Him On A Sunday" and "I Get Around," which we started in the first module, and added "Don't Stop Believin'," by Journey, based on the arrangement on the TV show "Glee," and the old chestnut "Twist and Shout." Although most of the group members are primarily singers, they are all eager to explore playing instruments as well, and I am happy to oblige. So we gave just about everyone a turn at the drum set, with varying results, and some may help out on keyboards and maybe even guitar. Alec, our dedicated guitarist, was not able to be persuaded to sing, though.

Kriea Giffin-Dean continues to improve in both confidence and delivery with her singing, and is starting to make progress on the drum set, which she is quite keen on trying. Bri Oleson is turning out to have a talented and dynamic soprano voice, and adds a lot to our harmonies. Sophie Reiter is a very dedicated student, and is very responsive to any direction she is given concerning her vocal technique and projection. She continues to develop her ear for harmonies. She may also play some drums or percussion as time goes on. The times that Rachel Roush has been in class and well have shown her to be a wonderful vocalist, keyboard player and drummer. I don't think there's an instrument made that she doesn't have some proficiency on! I look forward to exploiting her many talents throughout the year. Lance Wilkes, our only male vocalist, has used that to his advantage, taking the solo parts on "I Get Around," and being the focus of the girls' attention on "I Met Him On A Sunday." He also shares the lead vocal with Bri on "Twist and Shout," and is growing in vocal personality each session. Alec Porter's improvement on guitar is impressive. He knows his way around the instrument a lot better this year, both in executing chords and in playing solo parts with rhythm and style. We are even giving him a solo on "Twist and Shout," and I look forward to the results of that.

Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn

Our sophomores and juniors all came in early on a Saturday morning and took the PSAT. What a great group of young people—guiding them to their post-high school plans is an exciting prospect.

Our young women had the opportunity to meet with a representative of Meredith College. Regrettably this visit was at the height of our flu outbreak so many who were interested were not able to attend.

Our seniors have started to submit their college applications.... let the games begin!

2009-2010 Module 2

2009-10-20T15:11:00.001-04:00

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

I received incredible feedback about the math program during parent conferences. As a result each student has received a math calendar that outlines the expectations for his/her course(s) for the year. For students who are using a "Discovering" textbook the sites below offer enlightening condensed lessons and parent guides for each of the two textbooks.

DISCOVERING ALGEBRA www.keymath.com/x4540.xml
DISCOVERING GEOMETRY www.keymath.com/x19356.xml

The websites are a rich resource and will be used immediately in class and recommended for students to use at home.

English with Jill Sugg

English 7/8/9 finished "The Crucible" and read William Shakespeare's "Macbeth." They will see the film and take a very comprehensive test on Friday, October 16th.

Advanced Placement Literature read Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy for AR. They discussed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and saw the film. They were given the choice to write on either novel.

English 8/9 Advanced did a short fiction unit, discussed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, saw the film, and were given an essay assignment on the presence of Romanticism in the novel. They did Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby for AR.

English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

American History: Students have learned about colonial America from the first European encounters with indigenous peoples to a comparison of life in the colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia.

Civics: Students have wrapped up their look at the United States Constitution and are moving on to a case study of health care reform.

Current events: Students are in the midst of a case study of health care reform.

English 10/11/12: Students have read and discussed George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.

World History: Students have encountered the ideas of Plato in The Republic, learned about Athenian democracy, and compared & contrasted life in ancient Athens and Sparta.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Environmental Science: The focus of this class has been on biomes, climatogram analysis and population ecology. Students have been very successful analyzing data and applying concepts.

Human Biology: The Human Biology students have been working very hard on cell biology and microscopy skills. Students have spent laboratory time working with the microscopes and making slides. I am very pleased with their laboratory skills.

Chemistry: The Chemistry students have successfully completed their study of formula writing and naming. Students mastered the exam on this unit with great pride.

Biology: The Biology class is deep into their study of cell biology and botany. Students are completing their leaf collections and have been very successful using the dichotomous keys.

Physics with Dan Hill

The Physics class has had its first exam, that being on basic one-dimensional motion and the history of the concept of motion. As the next module begins, we begin a more in-depth look at motion, beginning with vectors and using them to describe and understand two-dimensional motion.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Introduction to Spanish—Students completed the study of Chapters 1A, 1B and 2A. They learned about school subjects and schedules, likes and dislikes and present tense conjugations.

Destinos 2—Students learned facts about El Salvador and Nicaragua, studied and discussed Episode 31 of Destinos and Chapter 1A in their textbook, Realidades 2. They reviewed present tense conjugations of -ar, -er and -ir verbs.

Intermediate students—Students learned the present subjunctive of irregular verbs, developed game strategies, played games in Spanish and focused their class discussions and writings on the topic of ethnic and racial prejudice. Discussions are lively and engaging and their current events vocabulary is increasing by the day!

Advanced students—Students learned about Guatemala and Uruguay as they read writings by Rigoberta Menchú and Horacio Quiroga. They studied and reviewed advanced grammar exercises in preparation for more intensive writing tasks.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

As I explained in Back to School Night, I'm approaching Middle Grades and Upper School a little differently this year. Classes will consist of a fitness day and a sports/game day each week. If they do well with the fitness day, they are allowed to choose the sport/game they would like to play and learn about for that week. Typically, there will be three kinds of fitness days: upper body/abs, lower body/abs, and jogging and conditioning. Each week, we alternate which fitness class we will be doing. Some of the exercises include planks, squats, sit-ups, lunges, six inches, "dots", push-ups, jump rope, burpies (6 count), wall sits, and other exercises. For their sports/game day, the students have been playing some table tennis, soccer, and basketball.

Music with Daniel Raimi

Upper School students have been fantastic the past few weeks. All classes did some work on the classic Bob Dylan song "Blowin' in the Wind," and 9th grade students were also able to listen to and examine the themes of the great Pete Seeger song "If I Had a Hammer," performed in our classroom by the 1960's soul genius Sam Cooke. 9th Grade wrote their own verses to "Blowin' in the Wind," and I was very impressed by the themes explored by a number of students. We're going to continue writing our own songs, which will lead us to the following topic...

9th grade has just begun, and 10th–12th has continued working with Garage Band, the computer-based music creation software installed on all the computers in the lab. So far, we've examined how to create new melodies, assign specific instruments, create drum loops, and we've just begun discussing how to harmonize the pieces we've created. In 10–12, students have created a template that is their own version of the Clash classic "Should I Stay or Should I Go." In the next few weeks, those students will write their own verses to the song, and begin fleshing out their Garage Band projects. Within a month or so, we should have completed original songs based on the Clash, and will share them with the community on You Tube!

Drama with Roni Peterson

During Module 2, I introduced props and discussed the difference between set design and props and how the actor uses both during a scene. I chose two different props, and two students to use them in an improv scene. I was impressed with how quickly the students were able to come up with very creative ideas for using the props. A telephone prop was used in an improv exercise using prompt lines such as "I'm sorry," or " Let's not fight anymore," etc. They could either make or receive the phone call but they had to use the prompt line at some time during the conversation. This is an advanced exercise and the class did extremely well. I also gave them scripted one-sided conversations and based on the written words, they had to create the tone and situation. Giving different students the same script, I asked that they change the tone and situation so that they would learn that the interpretation of the words is the actor's choice. I also asked that they try to write their own phone scripts that we will act out in class. We will continue with this exercise in Module 3, and write short scripts based on a prop that will be given to them. We will then act out those original scripts.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

For this year, I have decided to rename the "A" Band and "B" Band the "Credit Class" (for the M-W-F group) and the "Club Class" (for the Tu/Th group) to better reflect their purpose and meaning. The entire program is called "Music Performance."

CREDIT CLASS

In Module 2 we explored 3 songs from varied genres. "In My Life" by John Lennon and the Beatles, "One Note Samba" by Antonio Carlos Jobim, and "Fever" by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell, popularized by Peggy Lee. The first two songs allowed vocalists Olivia Arges and Viola Samadi to learn how to harmonize with each other, and the 3rd allowed them to trade verses, and work on vocal improvisation. Sarah Chetty is working hard on the harpsichord solo for "In My Life" (which on the original recording is a speeded up piano solo, recorded slowly because George Martin didn't have the technical facility to play it at tempo; Sarah does!), and Josh is doing well with some difficult bass patterns on "One Note Samba." Josh also contributes a beautiful third harmony part on "In My Life." Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach really burns the place up with his solos on "Fever," and plays a rhythmic pattern of his own devising for "One Note Samba" that fits extremely well with the song. Elisabeth Parker does a terrific job for herself on both "In My Life," which has a completely written out drum part, and "Fever," on which I asked her to improvise and try different beats. She is often being very courageous in her playing, because I know she prefers to just "play the page."

As well as learning these songs, we also talked a lot about song structure, and completed an assignment where the students were asked to analyze 5 songs of their choosing. Their results showed a good working knowledge of how songs are put together. This analysis will lead to composing our own songs, which they all still seem somewhat timid about. They're all such terrific musicians, though, that I know whatever songs the class ends up writing will be wonderful.

Lastly, we spent a good amount of time creating our own arrangement of "Fever," to which each student contributed. It was a very creative time for all, and allowed us to "think outside the box," or, in this case "the paper."

CLUB CLASS

I only had 2 chances to meet with this class in Module 2, but we already made good progress on 2 songs: "I Met Him On A Sunday," as sung by Laura Nyro and LaBelle, and "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys. Both make extensive use of vocal harmony, while allow multiple students to sing solos as well. I also collected some other song ideas from the students, and gave them all a CD of possible upcoming songs. The group sounds great together, and I look forward to really exploring their musical gifts in Module 3.

Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn

It has been a busy time in the guidance office. Many Upper School students are signed up for online courses ranging from a UNC-G philosophy class to a Virtual High School class in business. All of these students have demonstrated a wonderful work ethic and are now well established in these courses.

Students met with our first college rep of the season—from Davidson College. In addition, many students attended the College Fair at Northgate Mall and/or used the time off during conference week to visit college campuses.

Eligible seventh graders have been provided information as to how to register for the Talent Identification Program and tenth through twelfth graders are gearing up for a busy time taking PSAT's, SAT's and ACT's!

2009-2010 Module 1

2009-09-29T14:15:00.001-04:00

Mathematics with Jenny Feaster

Students spent the first couple of weeks in several hands-on math reviews. The reviews were designed to be challenging and fun. Each student has been pretested on basic math skills. As a result of pretesting, each student has been assigned a course level and has started working in his/her course of study.

English with Jill Sugg

Students discussed summer reading selections and pretested in the categories of vocabulary, literary devices, grammar, reading speed and comprehension, and writing. All classes discussed The Last Shot and took an AR-type test on it. English 7/8/9 discussed I am the Cheese and Jacob Have I Loved; they have begun reading "The Crucible". English 8/9 Advanced has discussed The Cradle Will Fall and A Confederacy of Dunces; they have begun a short fiction unit. Advanced Placement Literature students have discussed A Confederacy of Dunces and are now discussing "Death of a Salesman": their outside reading is Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. It's been a terrific start to the new year!

English and Social Studies with Matt Willhelm

The World History class has been examining the beginnings of human civilization in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. American History has looked at the first interactions between Europeans and indigenous Americans. Current events has focused on the health care debate, while also looking a bit at the concept of media bias. Civics has started looking at the ideas of John Locke and how they influenced the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. English, meanwhile, has completed extensive pretesting and has started reading George Orwell's 1984.

Science with Lori Hilliard

The Upper School science classes have spent Module 1 reviewing, pretesting and being introduced to the various course disciplines. Students completed a series of laboratory activities designed to review concepts covered in previous courses as well as to re-energize them from the summer slump. All classes were also introduced to the science topics to be covered this year and students were presented with course syllabi.

Physics with Dan Hill

The Physics class began Module 1 by reviewing a few science topics and skills, and then dove into pretesting. We've already taken a quick look at the Scientific Method, designed and performed our first experiment, and dipped our toes in the study of motion. In Module 2 we will wade much more deeply into our look at motion in one, two, and eventually three dimensions.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Introduction to Spanish students have been assessed to determine retention of material already learned. They have learned about infinitives, likes and dislikes, time, calendar skills, seasons and weather conditions. Destinos 2 students have been tested on the summer packet as well as the episodes studied last year. They are learning about Spanish countries in Central America and the Caribbean and have begun the second year of Destinos episodes. Intermediate students have been tested on readings, grammar and vocabulary from the summer workbook. They have begun to write stories in small groups and present them orally in class and have begun to study the subjunctive tense. Advanced students have discussed the summer reading and/or workbook and have been tested for retention of grammar and vocabulary from last year. They are reading short stories and studying Spanish refrains as well as having class discussions of various topics to assess their oral communication skills. The primary goal of all Spanish classes is to use and own the Spanish language. Spanish will be the only language spoken in the Intermediate and Advanced classes.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

I've been very pleased with the energy and motivation students bring to each class. In Module One, all classes did fitness testing. I evaluate the students' physical fitness by looking at their endurance, strength, balance, flexibility, agility, and other fitness components. More specifically, they have completed the President's Challenge involving V-sit reach, shuttle run, 1 mile run, curl-ups, and push-ups. If you would like to learn more about the President's Challenge, you can go to www.presidentschallenge.org.

Music with Daniel Raimi

Upper school students are divided into two sections, and each section has had a different focus in the first weeks.

7th–9th grade students have only had two class sessions, and the first was devoted to discussing what we all wanted to get out of the class. The two main things that students are excited about are learning how to read music, and applying that knowledge to using the software program Garage Band, installed on all the Macs in the music room. In the next few weeks, we'll focus on becoming strong readers of traditional music notation, and we'll then apply that to the computers, creating our own simple songs on Garage Band. After that, we'll take things in a more individualized direction, with each student being able to create his or her own pieces of music.

Essential to the process of writing music is understanding how some have done it in the past, so we took a close look at the Bob Dylan song "Blowing in the Wind." We spent almost an entire class period on discussing the themes, metaphors, history, and imagery of the song. Each student had their own interpretation, and I was very happy to see how eagerly everyone engaged in the discussion. The most interesting question is at the heart of the song, centered around "the wind." What is the wind? Two very nuanced interpretations came out of our class session. First was the thought that the wind was a "wind of change," and that Dylan was hopeful about the changing times. A second thought was that the songwriter had a more pessimistic outlook, and that perhaps the wind was a "nuclear wind," where very little would change for the better. We used our understanding of the song to write a couple new verses to the song, with topics ranging from smells emanating from Camelot's downstairs bathroom, to relationships, to God. It was an excellent first couple of weeks.

In 10th–12th grades, students have gotten off to a quick start with reading and applying musical notation to Garage Band. We first broke down a series of complex rhythms, which students performed vocally. Second, we wrote simple melodies and entered them into the computers for Garage Band to play back to us. This week, I gave the students a series of short musical phrases to enter into the computer, which was very successful. Once we got that accomplished, the task turned to manipulating the software instruments on the computer, so that our melodies could be played by piano, synthesizer, orchestral strings, or tuba. This was a lot of fun, and soon we'll begin the process of writing our own pieces, recording them, and hopefully posting them online for all to hear!

Drama with Roni Peterson

Upper School students were asked to have a folder for handouts they will receive throughout the year. They have already been given a few that will be helpful to refer to as we do more advanced acting skills. The Art of Pantomime was introduced and situations were given to the students to act out. Improvisational work was also covered and will continue during Module 2, as well as the introduction of the use of props.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

Although we just had our first Music Performance class, lots has been going on in preparation. School-wide auditions were held, class make-up and meeting times were debated, and we've decided to create two groups again, each with a different focus and style.

What we called the "A Band" last year will meet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday before Morning Meeting, and will have more of a traditional band structure. Class members are Olivia Arges (vocals), Viola Samadi (vocals), Grace Kirkpatrick, who will be joining us in January after her semester in New York (vocals), Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach (guitar and vocals), Sarah Chetty (keyboards), Josh Stallings (keyboards and vocals), and Elisabeth Parker (drums and percussion). At our first session on Wednesday we had a successful try at the old standard "Fever," trading solos, vocal parts and drum styles throughout, and really making the song our own. I really like the mix of people in the group, and the way they sound together.

What we called the "B Band" last year will begin sessions on Tuesday, September 29, most likely meeting on Tuesday and Thursday before Morning Meeting. This class looks to be heavily vocals-based, which opens up a lot of possibilities for repertoire and style. The group make-up lends itself to styles like doo-wop and Motown, as well as reworking songs by harmony groups like the Beach Boys, the Jackson 5, the Beatles, Queen, and looking at more contemporary groups like Take 6 and 'N Sync. I am very excited about the possibilities, and eager to get started. After having heard the students sing at the auditions, I am confident that they will sound great together. Class members at this time are Kriea Giffin-Dean (vocals), Sophie Reiter (vocals), Lance Wilkes (vocals), Brianna Oleson (vocals and piano), Rachel Roush (vocals and piano) and Alec Porter (guitar).

Overall emphasis for both classes will be similar. This year I will have a threefold approach. First, repertoire, in which we will learn songs from a wide variety of popular music styles, from the 1930's up to today. Second, improvisation, where we will use jazz standards and other appropriate music to improve our creativity and spontaneity. And third, composition, where I will ask each of the students to contribute to writing songs for the class, whether it be music, lyrics or arrangement ideas. Within the context of all these pursuits, valuable lessons will be learned about harmony, music theory and song structure.

2008-09 Module 7

2009-03-08T16:47:00.000-04:00

English with Jill Sugg

Seventh graders read "Romeo and Juliet." They saw the classic film version and took a 50 question test including quote identifications. They read parts aloud and did a fantastic job. I was very impressed since this was their first experience with Shakespeare.

English 8/9 read Danny Santiago's Famous All Over Town, a popular 1983 coming of age story set in the Los Angeles barrio. They saw the film version of a true story in "Stand and Deliver", an inspirational account of real barrio students who were falsely accused of cheating on the Advanced Placement Calculus Test.

English 8/9 Advanced and English 10,11,12 read The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith's psychological thriller about a young man with no solid sense of self who becomes obsessed with a rich boy whom he kills and impersonates. They loved the plot twists and character analysis, as well as the film starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Advanced Placement Composition did a unit on Division and Classification. They wrote an essay categorizing types of any given broader classification. They continue to work on multiple choice in preparation for the big test in May.

Math with Annie Tally

With mid-semester fast approaching, many of the math students are working with great focus to complete their pace requirements. Laura, the new math assistant, is keeping an eye on those pace calendars and lending assistance to those who need extra help during several class periods each week. Several students are also taking advantage of the extra math study halls.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry: The Chemistry I class has completed an intensive lab unit. Students have completed labs on spectroscopy, stoichiometrical calculations, rate of reaction and many more topics to reinforce concepts covered in the first semester.

Human Biology: This class has completed their study of the brain and nervous system. Students enjoyed learning about the brain through the study of addiction.

Biology: The end of the microbiology unit was marked by the completion a lab practicum as well as a major theory exam. All students were successful and I am proud of their efforts.

Environmental Science: Soil study has been the focus of this class. Erosion and deposition were examined in great detail in the areas around the school.

Physical Science with Daniel Hill

After our study of acceleration, we took a break from mechanics to consider density. We'll return to mechanics and look next at the concept of force.

History with Matt Wilhelm

Civics: We have examined fiscal and monetary policy and its effect on the economy.

World History: We have been looking at the causes of the first World War, and the experiences that soldiers had during that war.

US History: We have been learning about the causes of the Great Depression as well as its impact, and government's response to that crisis.

AP Government: We have been completing our discussions of precedent-setting Supreme Court decisions.

Current Events: We have continued our discussions of economics, through the lens of the current economic crisis.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish I—The students continued their study of "Destinos." They have followed the main character as she travels from Mexico to Spain and Argentina in search of clues to help her solve the mystery. The students have learned the vocabulary and plot in Episodes 12 - 15 and are able to talk about the characters and the story line in Spanish.

Spanish II—The students have finished reading the short novel "El viaje de su vida" and have presented creative projects in class summarizing the story. They have also learned accent rules and the use of the regular preterite tense.

Spanish III—The students have studied a chapter about healthy lifestyles and exercise. They have also learned to use formal and informal commands.

Spanish IV—The students continued to read short stories and poetry and to write short essays and creative stories. They have had animated conversations about their readings, writings and current events. The students have started to prepare for the SAT subject exam and have been reviewing vocabulary and grammar concepts.

Art with Heather Cramer

7th Grade: We are studying figure drawing, which will culminate in a self portrait. Having seen the 8th-12th grades go through this process first, they were eager to begin and are learning fast as they take turns modeling and drawing each other.

8th & 9th Grades: We began our "triptychs" project by looking at many different approaches - ancient, religious, and contemporary. Their challenge is to take the foam core triptych and create a design that will incorporate the two outer doors as an "invitation" to open and reveal the story or statement images inside. Each must relate to the other. The ideas are flying fast and furious - including cut outs as "teasers." We took a trip to the Scrap Exchange to find bits of "junque" that can be glued on the outer doors and spray painted to create a 3D or relief effect. Please help your student explore those "what-not" drawers in your house with potential art objects.

10th–12th Grades: These students asked to paint on canvas, so we stretched some on panels, primed them, and will be painting a composition I am calling "Dancing Bottles." We looked at many still life paintings of overlapping bottles and shapes, and then used paper patterns of bottles to create overlapping design drawings. This was primarily to loosen them up and to see the beauty of abstract shapes, but some wonderful drawings emerged from this exercise. We will draw from an actual still life of bottles and then translate this to our canvas paintings which will also bring some new experiences in paint use and techniques. Perhaps they will even see them "dance!"

Physical Education with Krista Moll

We have started one of my favorite sports to teach, basketball! Some of the fundamentals we've been going over include:

passing (chest pass, overhead pass, bounce pass)
dribbling (left hand, right hand, stutter, cross-over)
shooting (free throws, jump shots, lay-ups)
defense (zone and man-to-man)

I've been impressed with our students' dedication. It appears we have a lot of students who enjoy playing basketball. I hope to bring another basketball goal to campus sometime soon, but meanwhile, I have been taking them to Lyon Park for the unit.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

"A for Awesome" CLASS
We continued working on "Clocks" by Coldplay, refining the vocal harmonies and drum parts, in particular. We also started working on "Foreplay/Long Time" by Boston, which features Sarah Chetty on the complex organ solo at the beginning, and Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach on the guitar solos in the body of the song. Both are learning and performing their parts with increased skill. In the pipeline as well are Elton John's "Burn Down The Mission," which will feature Aaron Daniels-Freeman on piano, and REM's "Stand," with Rita Glynn playing the drums. My goal is to have some music to showcase each member of the band by the Evening of the Arts, which is now only 7 weeks away. I am very pleased with the concentrated work that the whole class is doing, and look forward to sharing the fruits of our labors.

"B for Best" CLASS
We continued working on "Twist and Shout" and "I Want You Back," which turned out to be more difficult than students imagined. To get the right accents and style on "Twist and Shout," as well as the unusual ending, was difficult but rewarding. Finding the right balance for "I Want You Back," with it's complex vocal harmonies, syncopated bass, piano riffs, and varied drum and guitar patterns, was also challenging. But we are really getting the hang of it now. We just started "Pinball Wizard," which is based on the Elton John version of the song by "The Who." I hope to have Brian Powell play acoustic guitar on this one, Grace Kirkpatrick on synthesizer, and Elaine Parker on drums and vocals. It looks to be a promising stretch for everyone. Also in the pipeline are "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," which will feature Grace on some flaming hot country fiddle, and "Grade 9" by the Barenaked Ladies, which should be a lot of fun, with lots of shared vocals and a bridge section that steals from the "Linus and Lucy" theme. Please make sure that the students bring their binders to every class, and take some time to practice their parts at home. If we are to accomplish everything I want to before the Evening of the Arts, it will take a little extra concentration for the next few weeks.

Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson

7th Grade: We went over some original plays and discussed them. We also watched an "I Love Lucy" episode with Harpo Marx that had them doing a Mirror Exercise. We then practiced this exercise which helps an actor connect with another actor. We have been getting back to basic acting using improvisational exercises. The students were asked to write an original commercial and then perform it. This module we will begin to work on an original play written by Mr. Scott.

8th Grade: The students were asked to write an original commercial and then perform it. We worked on improvisational exercises getting back to acting basics. We will be doing short scenes in this module. We will also work on the class play utilizing the acting skills that they are learning.

9th through 12th Grades: The students were asked to write original commercials and then to perform them. We have been working with improvisational exercises and getting back to the basics of acting. During this module we will continue to work on acting skills.

Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn

The last few weeks have been especially active ones. In Morning Meeting I have shared information about numerous summer programs available both near and far. We have discussed at length the value of exploring interests and college campuses that these programs provide. Information about these activities are posted on the bulletin board at the top of the stairs as well as on the board just outside Ms. Wendy's office. The juniors have come front and center - they have registered to take the SAT, ACT and SAT Subject Area Tests this spring. In addition, the juniors and their parents met with me one evening to examine the process of the next 15 months - between here and the graduation of the Class of '10! Both the students and their parents have autobiographical homework that they will complete to aid the college process.

On March 4th the 10th–12th graders who were not on the New York trip traveled with me to Guilford College. We enjoyed an information session and tour and then shared our thoughts and reflections at lunch. Students who traveled to New York enjoyed the tour and information session at New York University.

Meanwhile, the Class of '09 has been collecting college acceptances and their parents have been comparing financial aid offers. It is an exciting and grueling time to be a senior with Decision Day (May 1) quickly approaching.

2008-09 Module 6

2009-02-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

English with Jill Sugg

Seventh graders read Tennessee Williams' classic play "The Glass Menagerie" and wrote an essay on symbolism; they also viewed the film starring John Malkovich and Joanne Woodward. Ask them about the unicorn!

English 8/9 Advanced read Shakespeare's "Hamlet," took an intense four page test, learned the first five lines of the "To be or not to be" soliloquy, and saw the film in chunks starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close. Ask them about Yorick!

English 8/9 and English 10,11,12 read Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing," took a comprehensive test, and saw the film starring Kenneth Branagh and Denzel Washington. Ask them about Dogberry!

Advanced Placement Composition studied the rhetorical mode of process. We read several examples, each student wrote an essay, and then everyone gave a how-to speech with props. Ask them about getting to be the people who had fun for once instead of reading until their heads exploded!

Math with Annie Tally

Students have made great progress in meeting their math requirements. They worked with the new math assistant, Laura Nigro, to complete their math pacing calendars for the semester (ask your student about this). She or I will be checking the calendars each week, and those who could benefit from extra instruction will be invited to math study hall the following week (usually Tuesday, Wednesday, and/or Thursday) for extra help. Note that this is not a punitive measure and no negative consequence will result. We aim only to provide extra contact time to ensure that each student meets his/her goals for the semester. We are pleased to have Laura and Dan conducting those sessions and many students have already benefited from this addition to the math program. Laura is also often available during the school day as extra help during math periods. If any student or parent wishes to sign up for math study hall without having been assigned, s/he may contact Thelma and assignment will be made as space is available.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry: Stoichiometry was the focus of the last module. Students mastered the exam and several labs designed to reinforce stoichiometric calculations.

Human Biology: The muscular system has been completed in this class. Students also met the challenge of weekly medical terminology exams, muscle ID quizzes as well as a major theory exam. I am very proud of their efforts.

Biology: The completion of a unit on evolution as the unifying theme in biological studies followed our study of genetics. Students have also begun to master microbiology and laboratory techniques involved in the study of microorganisms.

Environmental Science: The classification of rocks and minerals has been the focus of this module. Students recently completed a two-week, hands-on lab identifying rocks, minerals and major theories.

Physical Science with Daniel Hill

Module 6 saw a short interlude on the Scientific Method and some practice writing Laboratory Reports while several of the students were in Costa Rica. After their return, we resumed our look at the next logical concept after velocity: acceleration. Soon we will be talking about momentum and force.

History with Matt Wilhelm

Civics: Students examined how local and state government work and began an in-depth examination of economic policy.

World History: The class has been looking at industrialism, colonialism, and nationalism, and how the three fit together.

US History: World War I, the military-industrial complex, and the advent of consumerism during the 1920s have all been covered during this module.

AP Government: Students have dissected significant Supreme Court decisions.

Current Events: Our young scholars have learned about the economic crisis in preparation for a unit on economics.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Celia was on leave this module due to a family emergency.

Art with Heather Cramer

Most students have finished their self portraits. The work that has been created is quite astounding ... please take time to enjoy the exhibit in the hallway. We have also talked about giving each other "positive response" to our art, rather than being critical of an effort which is a personal statement. It is a delight to see the individual styles and expressions that are coming forth.

7th grade finished their illuminated letters that together create the word "RESPECT." These are now hanging from the beam above us in the meeting hall. Wonderful work and much appreciated by all.

Physical Education with Krista Moll

We have just finished our badminton unit with Upper School. It was a little difficult at times because of the wind, but the students definitely adapted well and did the best they could. I was very pleased with their flexibility, patience, and progress.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

"A for Awesome" CLASS
After putting aside our other music to prepare for the Northgate Christmas performance, it was good to be able to spend some time working up new material, without the immediate deadline. With that in mind, we began working on something old and something new. Something old was a very simple arrangement of "Fever," which tested the students' improvisation skills, and forced everyone to think about texture, musical build, and how to make something special out of a very repetitive piece of music. It was a good exercise, which we will continue through the rest of the year. We also started working on "Clocks," by Coldplay. This is also a very texture-oriented song, with simple parts, and a repetitive arrangement. It is really teaching us the beauty of simplicity in some types of music, and forcing us to listen to each other, and to consider how each part fits into the whole. Lennon is the lead singer on this song, with Rita backing him up with harmonies, and singing the bridge.

The other event in this module for the "A" class was to go into a professional studio and record tracks for a demo. It was a very enlightening experience for all, I think. We recorded 3 songs, "Carry On My Wayward Son," "Moondance" and "All My Love." With the help of our wonderful engineer, Jason Merritt, we were able to create rough mixes of all the songs, as well as save the individual tracks for each song. We overdubbed vocal harmonies, did multiple versions of certain solos, played one song to a click track, and learned how to play together when in very separate physical spaces, connected only by the sound in the headphones. With the tracks that Jason created for us, each student, with the help of GarageBand or some other audio editing application, can work on their own mix of what we recorded, seeing the nuts and bolts of multitrack recording. Each student received a CD to keep, with the rough mixes as well as the individual tracks.

"B for Best" CLASS
After putting aside our other music to prepare for the Northgate Christmas performance, it was good to be able to spend some time working up new material, without the immediate deadline. Before long, we were able to play "Rock Lobster" through from start to finish, and begin work on the Jackson 5 song "I Want You Back." Although this seems like a nice, bouncy little pop song, it is actually fairly complex musically, and it took us a while to get it into our bones. While most of the class were away on the Costa Rica trip. I was able to work with Amy and Kriea and the complex vocal parts, which include harmonies and some counterpoint. This made things much easier when the rest of the class returned. We will continue to work on this piece, which also has some rhythmically difficult "R&B" violin parts for Grace, in the next module. We will also give "Tulsa Time," by Eric Clapton, a try, which will showcase Max on piano. We will also return to "Twist and Shout," and work more in group improvisational skills.

Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson

7th grade: This module we have worked on improvisational exercises. They are going to be working on a class play that was written by Scott. They auditioned in class for the parts that they wanted to play and their performances were voted on in secret. They were also given an assignment to pick a product and write and perform and original commercial.

8th Grade: During Module 6 the students were given lyrics to classical rock and roll songs of the 60's and 70's. They were asked to interpret said lyrics with performance. I was extremely impressed with their interpretations. They were then asked to choose a song of their own to perform again, in "Spoken Word." They did not sing the lyrics.

They were then given the assignment for creating a commercial to sell a product of their choice. It could be a parody of an existing commercial, or original.

During Module 7, we will be working on "Top Secret," the class play. I will be asking that each student start to memorize their parts in the coming weeks, so that by 2nd week of March they will be ready to perform the play off script.

9th through 12th Grades: During Module 6 the students were given lyrics to classical rock and roll songs of the 60's and 70's. They were asked to interpret said lyrics with performance. I was extremely impressed with their interpretations. They were then asked to choose a song of their own to perform again, in "Spoken Word." They did not sing the lyrics.

They were then given the assignment for creating a commercial to sell a product of their choice. It could be a parody of an existing commercial, or original.

I had asked a friend of mine, who is a playwright, to write some age appropriate plays for my students. We COLD read the plays having students in each class read various parts. We then held an open forum to discuss the plays. It was very interesting to hear the various comments from each grade.

2008-09 Module 5

2009-01-10T14:09:00.001-05:00

Math with Annie Tally

The math students have been busy studying and testing in order to meet their semester goals. It's been pleasing to see that many of the more experienced students have been graciously assisting those in lower level courses with their questions.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry: The students have successfully completed writing, balancing and identifying five types of chemical equations in this module. I am very proud of their cooperative group work ethic.

Human Biology: The skeletal system has been the focus of this module for the students in this class. They have all completed two oral examinations on the skeleton and I am pleased with their hard work and determination.

Biology: The completion of the genetics unit has brought our semester to an interesting close. Bioethics and genomics have produced many thoughtful debates and discussions.

Environmental Science: This class has been looking at the impact of environmental disasters on human health. We have examined the roles of organizations such as FEMA, CDC, WHO as well as local agencies in response to disaster.

Physical Science with Daniel Hill

In Physical Science we have finished up our discussion of speed and velocity (and the important difference between the two) and reviewed all the general techniques and skills that we covered during the semester. Next semester we will begin by looking at acceleration, which will lead us to an examination of force and mass and all manner of other basic mechanical topics.

English with Jill Sugg

English 7 and English 8/9 read the classic novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles.This is a timeless book and kids still love Finny.

Advanced 8/9 finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road and most of them said it was one of the best books they had ever read. They joined AP Composition and English 10,11,12 in reading selected nonfiction humor by Dave Barry and local favorite David Sedaris. Laughter is good for everybody.

English 10,11,12 also did a mini-unit on Ray Bradbury's short fiction.

AP Composition's syllabus has been approved by The College Board. We had mini-writing conferences at Barnes and Noble, as students continue to prepare for the May exam. Most recently they wrote Cause and Effect essays and they will soon be giving "How-to" speeches as we delve into writing about process.

History with Matt Wilhelm

Civics: Students have been examining the civil liberties Americans are provided by the Bill of Rights, and the judicial processes used to protect these rights.

World History: Students learned about the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Enlightenment. We also compared and contrasted the American and French revolutions.

US History: We have examined the rise of America as a global power during late 19th century, the development of big business in the United States, and the reforms of the Progressive Era.

AP Government: Students completed their unit on institutions of American government, and examined civil liberties issues relating to the detention of terrorism suspects.

Current Events: Students learned about the tensions between the United States and Iran and evaluated American perceptions of Iranian culture. Additionally, students examined the role of race in American society.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Celia taught classes up until the Winter Break. Due to a family emergency she was not able to provide a write up of the class activities.

Art with Heather Cramer

7th Grade is working on a special project for Camelot. Each student is creating an illuminated letter to form the word "RESPECT" to go in the Big Hall. These are almost completed and the frames are waiting. Look up when you enter the hall!

Upper School students have been learning to draw the human figure ... taking turns modeling. We have learned how to find the proportions and basic shapes of the figure, and then fill it out with details and features. Our final project is now well underway. Each student posed for a photo which they are using for reference for a self portrait drawing/painting ... placing themselves in an imaginary scene and story. We used light tables to get basic position and shapes from the photos, and they are adding to and changing these to fit their story. Quite amazing to see what is developing! Watch for the exhibit!

Physical Education with Krista Moll

Upper School students began Module 5 with a handball unit, learning the history, rules, and strategy of the game. Midway through the unit, however, we began our semester fitness testing and finished just before winter break. The test results show that most students have improved their fitness since the beginning of the year. I am very excited to see this progress and I hope it continues throughout the rest of the year!

Also, if you could remind your child/children to wear tennis shoes/sneakers the days they have PE, it would help tremendously. Those without proper footwear increase the risk of injury.

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

Because of preparations for the performance at Northgate Mall, we put aside the long range songs we had been working on and put all of our concentration on holiday music. Between sickness, absences due to family matters, doctors' appointments and other unavoidable problems, the fact that we did as well as we did in our Northgate performance is a testament to the hard work and concentration on the members of both bands. I was very proud of them. After the holidays we resumed work where we had left off, and more new songs are on their way.

"A for Awesome" CLASS
Out of all the holiday song arrangements, I felt especially good about "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," which Sarah brought to our attention, and I arranged for the whole band. It was a very different style for us, with lots of dynamic changes and unusual rhythmic elements, but everyone took to it extremely well. I tried to give everyone a chance to shine in our performance. Lennon did his best "Chuck Berry" imitation on "Run Rudolph Run," Sarah ran up and down the keys on "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," Edwin and Rita traded lines on "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Josh and Sarah clogged to "Sleigh Ride." David and Aaron played well throughout, and everyone got another chance to improvise on "Moondance." Currently, we just completed a 'first draft' of "Carry On My Wayward Son," and ventured back into the jazz idiom with Peggy Lee's "Fever."

"B for Best" CLASS
This class had a lot of fun putting together their holiday songs, and I think it showed in the performances. Brian has become quite adept at the keyboard bass, and really drove the rhythm on "Feliz Navidad" and "White Christmas." Amy and Kriea worked out their harmonies in a very short amount of time, and really brought a lot of life to "Jingle Bell Rock" and "White Christmas." Alec learned the classic intro to "Jingle Bell Rock," and kept a solid rhythm on the other songs as well. Elaine gets better and better at laying down a steady rhythm for the band, all the while adding interesting dynamics and fills. Although Grace wasn't able to play in the performance, she really brought a lot of vitality to her vocal parts in rehearsal. As with the "A" band, we just completed a full run-through of "Rock Lobster," and will begin work on the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" on Friday. I am trying to get the students to feel more comfortable with improvisation, but for most of them it's a bit like pulling teeth! Once they get over their self-consciousness, as the vocalists did in the spoken parts of "Rock Lobster," then the ideas and melodies really begin to flow. Thanks to those who gave it a try. I hope to have everyone more involved by the end of the year.

Dramatic Arts with Roni PetersonM

I am very excited about the continued progress of our Upper School actors and actresses! In all classes, improvisational exercises were met with enthusiasm, creative thought, and much improved acting abilities. Scene study was covered, and a play in the 8th grade is being worked on.

Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn

January 1st and 15th were major due dates for college applications! The seniors put in some long hours and as a result they turned in some very strong work. Now the waiting begins. Our college trip to Guilford and Elon has been postponed due to the weather. We'll reschedule soon.

2008-09 Module 4

2008-11-30T22:24:00.000-05:00

Math with Annie Tally

The math students are striving to meet, and in many cases, exceed, their semester goals prior to Winter Break. The Algebra I students completed a chapter on proportional reasoning during with they investigated the relationship between the gear changes and resulting number of wheel revolutions of a bicycle.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry: We have successfully completed our study of percentage composition and empirical formulas this module.

Human Biology: Looking into our past and the changes that have happened over time has been the focus of this module. Students have been very interested in the study of evolution and the science behind the current theories.

Biology: Mendelian Genetics and Punnett squares have been the topics of interest this module. Students have been active participants in the study of Genetics.

Environmental Science: Alternative energy forms and cost/benefit analysis have dominated discussions in this class this module. Students are great debaters and are very knowledgeable in these areas.

Physical Science with Daniel Hill

Amidst much groaning and gnashing of teeth, we have finally finished our unit on dimensional analysis, which brings us to the end of the first phase of the course, wherein we focused on learning generalized science-classy skills. When we return from break, we're going to start learning some actual material, answering their questions about the nature of reality, as well as the equally stirring: "When am I ever going to use this?"

English with Jill Sugg

Seventh graders read Plague Year by Stephanie Tolan and did a unit on short stories including authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and D.H. Lawrence. English 8/9 read The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. English 8/9 Advanced read the second half of Salem's Lot. English 10,11,12 and Advanced Placement Composition read The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Lots of good writing accompanied all classes and the advanced classes ventured into reading (and in some cases even writing) literary criticism.

History with Matt Wilhelm

Civics: We have been examining the roles of the three branches of American government, and how they "check and balance" the powers of one another.

World History: Students have learned about the development of Islam and its impact on the society and culture of the Middle East. Feudalism in Europe, the Crusades, and the Black Death have also been covered.

US History: Students have examined the social reform movements of the 1830s and 1840s, the Mexican-American War, and the American Civil War.

AP Government: Students have studied the institutions of American government (the three branches) and their responsibilities.

Current Events: Following up on the presidential election, students have examined the roles of the presidency, and some of the controversies involved with the expansion of presidential power.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish I: Students completed Episode 8 of Destinos and have learned to use vocabulary related to the first eight episodes. They are studying Spanish culture, traditions, customs and foods as they follow the protagonist's adventures in Sevilla and Madrid. The class wrote to the curator of the Nasher Museum to congratulate her for being knighted by King Juan Carlos of Spain following her discoveries of unknown inventories of valuable Spanish paintings.

Spanish II: Students are increasing their use of verbs and new vocabulary as they read our new short novel, El Viaje de Su Vida. They are enjoying this mystery adventure, are discussing it in class and look forward to a project about the novel when they finish reading it.

Spanish III: Students are coming to the end of our first brief novel, Mi Propio Auto. They have learned vocabulary and grammar pertinent to the story, have had class discussions about the chapters and have planned and performed creative skits following the story line.

Spanish IV: Students continued their study of poetry and have analyzed and memorized an ancient Spanish ballad. They have learned to use the present perfect tense and have started a new chapter in Ventanas that introduces vocabulary related to technology and science.

Art with Heather Cramer

Upper School completed pencil drawings of a fall still life. Many then moved on to working with black and white charcoal on brown or gray paper. After learning about placement and proportion, this exercise was to find the dark and light areas, and to use the paper as middle shade. We used antique items as subjects, and the old heavy rotary phone was a great source of amusement!

We then took a more light hearted approach to art and contributed to the table decorations for the Academic Fair feast. Our task was to make "pop-up" fences and a chain of paper dolls to represent the Camelot population. It was good fun dressing "our children" and seeing who were the most fashion savvy!

9th Grade students worked hard and were able to finish their "Emotions 3D" paintings in time for the art display at Academic Fair. The variety, creativity, and depth of understanding that these students have portrayed with their work is amazing. I am very proud of them!

Physical Education with Krista Moll

As most of you probably saw your kids digging through the garage or bugging you to find some rackets, you may have concluded, "Yes, they must be in their tennis unit." I've been very thankful that Mike has been able to drive us out to Forest Hills Park where there are four tennis courts to play on. We were able to cover basic fundamentals of hitting and keeping the score, but I believe what they enjoyed most was the singles and doubles tournament they all participated in. I feel that tennis is something they don't get to do very often, but something they enjoy doing. It was a very successful unit, so I'm thinking I may have another tennis unit next semester. We will see!

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

Most of Module 4 was spent perfecting 3 songs for each class to perform at the Academic Fair and Thanksgiving Feast, and it has been a productive time. Along with learning the parts, we have talked about which sounds for each keyboardist to play, listening to one another, balancing the sound, and what to play when another musician is playing an improvised solo. Having an upcoming performance really tends to focus energy, and help in learning parts. As far as the Academic Fair performance, I was very pleased and proud of both classes. I felt the songs were well-executed, yet also showed the spirit and passion of the music. Despite the obvious and unavoidable sound system problems, I hope the audience enjoyed it as well. Each class performed two "written" songs, and one that included a lot of improvisation.

Giving credit where it's due, I wanted to apologize for not including Grace Kirkpatrick in my introductions for the "B for Best" band. She somehow managed to stay out of my visual range, and I am sorry to have missed her. Grace is a real asset to the group, doing double duty as violinist and vocalist. I also wanted to credit Kriea Giffin-Dean with writing the lyrics to the "12 Bar Blues." I think Amy Hillsman may have helped as well. Great job!

The new start time of 8:15am to set-up and 8:20am to begin playing has been very helpful, and allowed us to become much more productive in our sessions. Thanks to everyone for making the extra effort to get everyone there a bit earlier.

"A for Awesome" CLASS
Along with cleaning up "Fixing A Hole" and "All My Love," we quickly learned Van Morrison's "Moondance" to have something for the group to improvise on for the Fair. The band picked up on the feeling and texture of this song immediately, and made the sometimes difficult rhythmic elements of the song sound easy and natural. We also began work in earnest on "Carry On My Wayward Son."

"B for Best" CLASS
Along with cleaning up "You Won't See Me" and "Birthday," and reinventing "12 Bar Blues" as a vehicle for group improvisation, we began learning the B-52's "Rock Lobster," which has some really great keyboard and keyboard bass parts, and a very rocking drum groove. I am certain that perfecting that tune will keep us busy for a while.

We have been asked by Northgate Mall to provide entertainment for Christmas shoppers on Saturday, December 20th from 2-3pm. I am hoping that a lot of the kids can join us for that event. Depending on everyone's availability, we may have both bands play, or a hybrid group with members of the "A" and "B" groups. If it works out, we will spend much of the December class time learning some really rocking Christmas and Hanukah songs. I have some great ideas, and look forward to any input you may have as well.

Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson

During Module 4, all of the Upper School students were given the opportunity to practice their oral presentations for their Academic Fair projects. They were given instructions in public speaking techniques as well as individual comments based on their individual presentations.

The seniors joined the 10th and 11th graders. Monologues were acted out and short scenes were introduced.

The 9th grade class worked on monologues along with improvisational material.

The 8th grade was given a play and auditioned for the parts that they wanted, and the class voted for the one they considered the best choice for the part. This was done by secret votes. Parts of the play were rewritten by the class.

The 7th grade class worked on their monologues and were given out short plays. We will continue working on the plays in Module 5 and introduce new short scenes.

Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn

The seniors were rewarded for all of their hard work when they received their ACT scores. Everyone made good gains - some dramatic gains! Way to go! Now our attention has turned to college applications themselves and the writing of personal statements. By the start of the new year most of this paperwork push will be behind us and it will be time to turn attention to the juniors!

2008-09 Module 3

2008-11-12T08:05:00.000-05:00

Math with Annie Tally

Math students worked hard to complete any necessary testing prior to their mid-semester exams. Those who began Algebra with the new book earlier in the year have completed a chapter on data analysis and the three groups presented their election predictions on Election Tuesday using data from various polls. They are learning the virtues of working within a team and communicating with their teammates outside of class.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry:
The completion of formula writing and a major mid-term exam were the highlights of this module. Students have done well in all aspects of the course thus far.

Human Biology:
The students have completed an intensive unit on the cell and cell processes as well as a look at classification. All students did very well on their mid-term exam.

Biology:
The study of Botany has been successfully completed by the students in Biology I this semester. Their mid-term exam was also a great learning experience and all of the students are doing very well thus far.

Environmental Science:
The Environmental Science class has successfully completed their unit on population ecology this module. Students are very good with group discussion and seem to actually enjoy testing their knowledge.

Physical Science with Daniel Hill:
The Physical Science students have started a unit on measurement, dealing with uncertainty and significant figures. This will lead to unit conversion and dimensional analysis.

English with Jill Sugg

English 7 read The Pigman by Paul Zindel and studied mythology in conjunction with a great film version of The Odyssey. They just began Plague Year by Stephanie Tolan.

English 8/9 and 10,11,12 read the play "Deathtrap" by Ira Levin. Some of us attended an evening performance at Raleigh Little Theater.

The 10,11,12 class are through the first half of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and the 8/9 class is through the first half of The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

Advanced 8/9 read the first half of Salem's Lot by Stephen King. I have rarely seen people so into a book.

Advanced Placement Composition has studied non-fiction samples of 3 rhetorical modes thus far: description, definition, and persuasion. Students have also read the first half of The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

History with Matt Wilhelm

Civics:
Students have learned about political parties, interest groups, and the logistics of campaigns.

World History:
Students have been examining various aspects of Ancient Rome, including its republican form of government, the advent of Christianity, and social life during the peak of the Empire.

US History:
Students studied the United States Constitution and the early years of the Republic through the Jefferson administration.

AP Government:
Students have been studying topics associated with the electoral process in the United States: voter beliefs and behavior, political parties, campaigns, and elections.

Current Events:
Students continued to examine topics related to the November 4 elections. Students also debated the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish I —
Students continue to enjoy "Destinos" and are studying Episode 6. They have learned how to conjugate -ar verbs pertinent to the story line. We have animated conversations daily in class to discuss what we are learning about the characters and their adventures in Spain and Mexico.

Spanish II —
Students have been introduced to the poetry of José Martí, a Cuban patriot of the War of Independence. They have memorized poetry and have written their own poems as well. We have finished reading our brief novel, Pobre Ana, and have discussed the protagonist’s adventures in Mexico and how this experience changed her outlook on life.

Spanish III —
Students have completed their intense review of the preterite tense. They continue to increase their vocabulary as they read the brief novel, Mi Propio Auto, and to discuss the adventures of the protagonist as he travels to El Salvador to help build houses for earthquake victims.

Spanish IV —
Students completed Chapter 1 in their text and have started Chapter 2. They are reviewing the uses of object pronouns and prepositional phrases, are learning about diversions and entertainment and have started to learn about the Golden Age of Spanish painting.

Art with Heather Cramer

9th Grade is making good progress on their Emotions 3D paintings. Most have finished building the 3D piece with styrofoam and have begun "plastercrafting" over that. I hope that many of these will be completed in time for display at Academic Fair.

Nine UPPER SCHOOL students participated in our special session of "What Are The Masks We Wear?" (Great photos on the Camelot website.) This was a wonderful day of sharing, creativity, and a real sense of accomplishment with our final products - also to be displayed at Academic Fair!>

UPPER SCHOOL students (with the exception of 9th Grade) have been working on drawing skills... loosening up with contour drawing, observation, placement and proportion with an autumn still life. Students have picked up these techniques quickly and their drawings are delightful.

Watch for the folk art "Fence Folks" that have just gone up on the playground fence...sure to add a smile to everyone's day!

Our trip to the Nasher Museum to see the El Greco and Velázquez exhibit was fantastic. Our students were very engaged and interested... What an amazing experience for them to see masterpieces that were done 400 years ago. Many thanks to Ms. Celia for making this happen!

Physical Education with Krista Moll

I've been pleased to see how engaged students are by our Ultimate Frisbee unit. We were able to play at Forest Hills Park and the kids loved it. Ultimate is an easy sport to pick up. After reviewing the basic skills of the game (specific grips, basic forehand and backhand throws, ways of catching) and the rules we were able to get right into playing!

The Fit for Life program has been going well. If you have time, be sure to check out the rising thermometer! I'm so proud of all the students and their enthusiasm! I've heard students talk about their parents working out with them and getting sore as well. Excellent!

Reminder: Please make sure your log has the total amount of physical activity calculated in minutes at the bottom of the sheet where it says "total." If I have to do all the totaling, it becomes very time consuming! Thanks!

Also, thanks to all those who have made equipment donations! It's a big help!

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

We are settling in with new keyboards, a new mic, and really sounding good on the songs we've been working on. We actually have three keyboards now, which accommodates all the players in the "A" class.

"A" CLASS
The "A" class has just about mastered "You Won't See Me" and "Fixing A Hole," and they have been working on Led Zeppelin's "All My Love." Josh is playing the virtuosic synth-trumpet solo, and was sight-reading it almost up to speed. Great job, Josh! We will begin work on "Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas on Monday. We all agree that this will be a big challenge for everyone, but I know we can make the song sound great. Lennon is creating some very melodic and passionate fills on "All My Love" as well. David and Edwin are starting to gel as a rock rhythm section. Aaron and Sarah have been very consistent in learning and performing their parts, and the band as a whole is sounding terrific. We have been concentrating less on improvising these past few weeks, and more on playing together as a band.

With the approval of the class, I have decided to move up the start time to 8:20am. Everyone should arrive at 8:15am, so that we have time to set up and tune before the start of class. We just didn't have enough time to accomplish what we needed in each session, especially with Wednesdays gone because of Academic Fair. I am confident that we can accomplish much more with this extra time. So please do what you can to have your child there at this earlier time.

I am also looking into a performance opportunity at a local mall or shopping center during the Holiday season. If anyone has any contacts or ideas about places to play, please let me know.

"B" CLASS
The "B" class is doing well on their two main songs, "You Won't See Me" and "Bilrthday." We also started "Twist and Shout" this week, and are having a lot of fun with it. Grace has become quite the rock'n'roller, singing and playing her violin on "Birthday" with great style and passion. Kriea and Amy sing with Grace on "You Won't See Me," trading melody and harmony parts throughout the song, and are learning how to sing directly into the mics and sing with style. They sound great.

Alec is beginning to master his parts, especially the offbeat chords on "You Won't See Me." I am encouraging him to use more 'bar chords' in the songs, as they are more what is used by most rock guitarists. I gave him a chord chart to help him learn the different positions of the chords on the neck. Although we lack a bass player, Brian has done well with his left hand bass lines, joining Elisabeth in giving the band a solid rhythmic underpinning. He has discovered the "split keyboard" function on one of the donated synths, and uses it well, especially on "Birthday."

Max is playing a more integral part in the group with each session and Elisabeth, our drummer, continues to surprise me with her learning ability, creativity and brute strength! She is starting to lay down strong, consistent beats, and really seems to understand how the drums fit in with the texture of the whole sound. The band as a whole, in fact, seems to be listening more and more to each other, and it shows.

I would like to move the start time of the class to 8:20am. If everyone arrives at 8:15am, we will have time to set up and tune before we start. I've decided that 30-35 minutes just isn't enough time, especially with Wednesdays gone because of Academic Fair. Please talk with your student about this change, and do what you can to have him/her there at this earlier time.

I am looking into a performance opportunity at a local mall or shopping center during the Holiday season. If anyone has any contacts or ideas about places to play, please let me know.

Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson

I am very excited with the progress of these students and in their ability to perform in front of their peers. We have gone from improvisational work to monologues. Each student was given a particular monologue to memorize and perform. I have video taped most of the performances. Seeing themselves on a monitor, allows them to critique themselves at another level. I feel it's more effective than me critiquing them. It also fosters the "safe" environment and nonjudgmental atmosphere that I wish to provide in this class. Short plays were handed out and we will be going over them during the next few weeks. Each day, these wonderful students surprise me with their abilities to create. How far they have come in such a short time!

Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn

The seniors have finished their ACT course and taken the test! Yeah! One hurdle down. Several of the seniors have now moved on to start work on their essays and personal statements.

2008-09 Module 2

2008-10-17T14:50:00.000-04:00

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.

2008-09 Module 1

2008-09-28T16:25:00.000-04:00

Math with Anne Tally

The math students have been busy reviewing and pretesting. Many have completed this phase and have begun working in their respective textbooks. Overall, pretest results have shown good retention and I am pleased with their hard work.

Science with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry:
The Chemistry students have been focused on review and pretesting and well as laboratory work and skills assessment. The class is very dynamic and has the potential to do great things.

Human Biology:
The Human Biology class has completed review and pretesting as well as an intense microscope laboratory assignment. The students have done a wonderful job of moving into an upper level science course and proving their abilities.

Biology:
The Biology class has finished review and pretesting, microscopy and we have kicked off our leaf collections. Students have been collecting and identifying leaves from around the Camelot campus.

Environmental Science:
The Environmental Science class has completed review and pretesting successfully. We have begun our discussion of the various biomes on earth and the class as a whole promises to have some great debates this semester.

Physical Science with Daniel Hill

Physical Science students began the module with review activities, including all of the required parts of a laboratory report. We also completed our pretesting and began the unit on graphing.

English with Jill Sugg

First, congratulations to last year's Advanced Placement Literature students who had a 93% passing rate on the College Board Test in May. Scores came in during July and I could not be more proud of them all! We have spent this module pretesting and reconnecting with our summer reading in a meaningful way. Seventh Graders discussed Fahrenheit 451 and wrote in connection with Of Mice and Men and "A Raisin in the Sun" after viewing both films. Advanced 8/9 English students covered "The Crucible" and To Kill a Mockingbird, seeing both films and writing on both works. Regular level English 8/9 covered "The Crucible" and Ethan Frome. English 10,11, 12 discussed Brave New World and saw the film version of Ethan Frome. Advanced Placement Composition discussed Brave New World and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Everyone had to write at least 2 papers during pretesting. I am looking forward to a really productive and inspiring year.

History with Matt Wilhelm

The focus in all history classes during Module 1 has been looking at the "big picture" in order to provide context for what we will be encountering during the year. In US History and World History, we defined history as a process of examining and interpreting evidence from the past, as opposed to a list of facts, names, and dates to be memorized. AP Government students got a taste of the AP exam by completing sample multiple choice and essay questions. In addition, the AP students examined some of the political philosophies that underlie the American system of government. Civics students have examined democracy as a system of government and the inherent dilemmas that come with such a system. Current Events students, meanwhile, discussed the importance of keeping up with current events, particularly in a democratic society, and began looking in-depth at the presidential race.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish I - We have spent this module pretesting and reviewing Middle Grades Spanish. Classroom format and expectations have been clearly explained and demonstrated. Students are learning the names and roles of the main characters in our new program, Destinos.

Spanish II - We have spent this module pretesting and reviewing vocabulary and grammar from Spanish I. Students have shown good retention of last year's material and understand that they are expected to speak only Spanish in class. We have begun reading a short novel about a contemporary school girl and have acted out scenes from the story.

Spanish III - We have spent this module pretesting and reviewing vocabulary and grammar from Spanish II. Students have been challenged to speak only Spanish in class. They are reading a short novel about an American high school boy who goes to work with the poor in El Salvador and have acted out the scenes from the story.

Spanish IV - We have spent this module pretesting and reviewing grammar and vocabulary from Spanish III. Class members have taken turns reviewing and explaining verb tenses and their use. Students are reading a variety of short stories dealing with culture, customs, daily life and the correct use of grammar and punctuation. We have had lively discussions of these stories, in Spanish, of course.

Art with Heather Cramer

We had a very exciting beginning to our year with the delivery of a life-size statue of a horse to be painted for the NC State Fair. The 10th/11th grade spent a class period sketching ideas and we blended those into a cohesive design to represent Camelot and the fair theme. A group of 12 Upper School students also worked as often as they could during lunch and after school... a very dedicated and creative team! We finished "Merlin" a day early. He will be judged along with entries from 19 other Triangle area schools. The winner will be announced at noon, Monday, October 13th at the State Fair. See the Camelot website for photos.

9th graders helped with the horse project, but we were also able to do a hand mandala exercise... reenergizing our creativity for this year! Because I will see 9th grade twice a week, I am excited about developing more involved projects with them. In our last class, we talked about expressing emotion through art - looking at the work of several famous artists over the ages. Their creative challenge is to produce a 3D painting which will portray one of the many human emotions.

7th and 8th graders also did the creative hand mandala exercise, then moved on to a project which was inspired by the face cards in a deck of cards. Each student was asked to examine those designs, and then create a card about themselves. The challenge was to have it look like a face card, but to let the top and mirrored bottom represent two different aspects of their personalities. As always, an amazing spectrum of ideas has emerged!

Physical Education with Krista Moll

I've been very pleased with the amount of energy and motivation the students bring to each class. It makes working them hard easy to do! In Module One, all classes did fitness testing. Collectively, I evaluate the students' physical fitness by looking at their endurance, strength, balance, flexibility, agility, and other fitness components. More specifically, they have completed the President's Challenge involving V-sit reach, shuttle run, 1 mile run, curl-ups, and push-ups. Next week, they should be bringing home their physical fitness file with that information in addition to their height, weight, and BMI (body mass index). If you would like to learn more about the President's Challenge, you can go to www.presidentschallenge.org.

When it rained, I taught a health lesson on the benefits of physical activity and the obstacles people face when trying to lead a healthy life. So, yes, PE does require note-taking sometimes!

Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach

There has been a lot of interest in the Band Class (or Music Performance) this year. We have decided to split the class into two groups, meeting on alternate days. I sent a schedule home with the students last week. It's a bit confusing, since each group meets M-W-F of one week, and then Tu-Th of the next, but it is the best way to give each class the attention they need.

In the first couple of weeks we have been getting to know each other, finding out what kinds of music the students like, what skills they would like to improve, and how well they can play with a group. We have also shifted a few students from one group to another, to better balance the abilities and needs of the students, and to create a good mix of instruments and voices in each class. I feel that we have a good balance in each of the classes for the time being.

Class A consists of:

Rita Glynn (vocals, percussion)
Eva Sutton (vocals, percussion)
Josh Stallings (piano)
Sarah Chetty (piano)
Aaron Daniels (piano)
Lennon Klinger-Mehrbach (guitar, vocals)
Edwin Leskin (bass)
David Achin (drumset)

We have been working on a "12 Bar Blues in C," to familiarize them with this basic building block of popular music, and see how well they can play together, as well as "Fever" and a favorite from last year's class, "Hallelujah, I Love Her So." In the coming weeks I will be arranging a few of the songs that the students have suggested, and continue to expand our repertoire.

Class B consists of:

Amy Hillsman (vocals)
Kriea Giffin-Dean (vocals)
Grace Kirkpatrick (violin, vocals)
Brian Powell (piano)
Max Fried (piano)
Alec Porter (guitar)
Elaine Parker (drumset)

We have also been playing "12 Bar Blues in C," along with the old Beatles favorite, "Birthday." As with the other class, I will introduce class picks and other, more elaborate, songs as they become more comfortable with playing together.

Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson

The students have been enthusiastic participants in all of the theater exercises we have done. The emphasis has been on "given circumstances", and the importance of giving the character a full "biography". The use of pictures from magazines as prompts for improvisational work was a great success. The introduction of props for improvisational work, also aided the creative process. We will continue to work on scene study, as well as monologues. I will begin to videotape performances to give visual feedback to the students. Some of the material covered so far:

Specific exercises to improve memory
Handouts on Obectives in Acting, Theater vocabulary, and Given Circumstances
Discussion of Given Circumstances
Exercises utilizing the "Open Scene" format which uses few words or sentences, challenging creativity, team work, and the ability to think "outside the box."
Props, and pictures were introduced to use in improvisational exercises.

Guidance Update with Thelma Glynn

The seniors meet for a period each day to work on college related topics. Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday they have ACT prep instruction from the Princeton Review. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we sometimes have in college reps (to date Drew University, Macalester College and Guilford College), sometimes work on our college lists and sometimes complete ACT homework. Next week the seniors hit the road on college visits and when they return we will delve into the college application process.

High School students of all ages have participated in the college rep visits. In addition, Upper School students have been making presentations in Morning Meeting about all of the wonderful summer programs they attended.

Module 10

2008-05-16T09:49:00.000-04:00

English with Jill Sugg

Advanced Placement Literature read All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. English 10,11,12 read Ordinary People. Both classes wrote essays on the aforementioned titles. English 10, 11, 12 has also begun The Basketball Diaries. Seventh graders as well as English 8/9 Regular Level read The Rag and Bone Shop. They are currently completing their related writing assignment. English 8/9 Advanced read The Great Gatsby and wrote an essay on it. All 7,8,and 9 students learned some Latin prefixes to help prepare them for the SAT, and had some grammar review.

Math with Annie Tally

Math students, in general, are busy working to meet their semester requirements. My third period class has had time to look at the Konigsberg Bridge Problem and also to discuss transversable networks as an exercise in logic.

Upper School Sciences with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry

The Chemistry class has completed their unit on acids and bases. The culminating activity was to tie-die T-shirts using natural dyes extracted from plants.

Biology

The Biology class has just completed their study of invertebrate organisms. Students participated in many laboratory activities and did a great job.

Anatomy

The Anatomy students are enjoying a unit on the cardiovascular system. Students have dissected a sheep heart, and discovered pulse rates at various places on their bodies.

Environmental Science

The Environmental Science students are studying weather. The class has looked at weather patterns and forecasting. We also constructed anemometers, wind speed indicators and wind catchers.

Physical Science with Dan Hill

The Physical Science class has completed its overview of the structure and history of the Periodic Table of Elements, and is now using this information to explain various types of atomic bonding.

Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

World History

In addition to beginning independent research papers, World History students have been examining various aspects of the Cold War.

US History

Students have been pondering the Sixties dictum about tuning in, turning on, and dropping out. Stay tuned.

Psychology

Students have been studying the role of psychology in areas such as social and political behavior, as well as analyzing psychological techniques employed in advertising.

Current events

Students have started their Nation State simulations, while also considering the state of health care in America by taking a critical look at Michael Moore's Sicko.

Civics

Civics students have been reflecting on the role of media in a democracy and they have begun work on their year-ending public policy proposals.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish I

We completed a chapter about family celebrations, understanding cultural perspectives on family celebrations and ordering meals in restaurants.

Spanish II

We studied emergencies, rescues, heroic acts and natural disasters. Students learned to describe weather conditions and learned cultural perspectives on natural disasters and legends.

Spanish III

Third year students continue their study of cultural fusion in Spain and Latin America. We have read a short passage from "Don Quixote" and have learned about the early history of Spain. Students learned the imperfect subjunctive tense.

Physical Education with Paige Passavant

The students are finishing their Student-Led unit. Each student got to teach twice and was required to have a Plan A (outside game) and a Plan B (inside game). They did a great job!

Jazz with Glenn Mehrbach

We added one more song to the mix in this module: "Body and Soul" by Johnny Green. This song presents many challenges. It is the first true "torch song" that will feature Rita's vocal and theatrical gifts. I also wrote an arrangement for Cami to accompany the vocal, to simulate the way an instrumentalist would improvise around a vocal line. Channing must really step up in this song as well, as her piano playing will help build the tune from a quiet ballad to a powerhouse torch song. And David and Edwin must work in tandem to support these transitions.

We also chose the songs for Evening of the Arts, and spent time refining those. The students are playing very well, listening to each other, and their concentration is good. I hope you enjoyed their performance.

Finally, we have our first booking outside of school, playing at "Artsplosure" in Raleigh for a 15 minute set on May 17th. We are all excited about that and hope you can come out and hear the group perform.

Art (7th & 8th grades) with Heather Cramer

We have continued our introduction to basic art skills, with a week off for class trips. We worked from a still life of bottles to learn the "drawing through" concept - completing lines of objects even though they can't be seen. We did lovely abstract watercolor paintings using these drawings. We also did an exercise in mixing paints to create gradation of shades from black to a color to white.

Drama with Susie Kless

We enjoyed preparing for Evening of the Arts. Thanks to the tech crew and the actors for all of their hard work and to Scott Jones, from Duke theatre operations, who helped us greatly.

Guidance Update from Thelma Glynn

The juniors took the ACT and prepared to take the SAT. All students in Grades 5-12 completed a Summer Activity Survey. The seniors made a last round of trips to their colleges in preparation for making their final decisions. It is a busy and exciting time!

Module 9

2008-04-17T09:52:00.000-04:00

English with Jill Sugg

Seventh graders and regular level eighth and ninth graders read the adolescent novel Plague Year and seemed to truly enjoy it. Advanced eighth and ninth graders read Ordinary People by Judith Guest and saw the film that won best picture in 1980. English 10,11,12 read Truman Capote's true crime novel In Cold Blood. Lastly, Advanced Placement Literature students read Edward Albee's play "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and started Robert Penn Warren's political masterpiece All the King's Men.

Math with Annie Tally

Math students continue to make progress toward their spring semester goals. The 7th graders spent one lovely spring afternoon calculating the heights of the basketball goal, a tree, and the castle, using their own heights and those of their shadows. This concept will be fundamental for their later study of trigonometry. They also found the slopes of stairs and the handicap ramp. Finding slope is a skill that they will use repeatedly in calculus.

Upper School Sciences with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry
Chemistry students have completed their study of solutions. Each student successfully completed their alternative assessment on this topic by mixing solutions of various molarities.

Biology
The Biology class has completed its study of protozoans. Students collected water samples from area streams and cultured well known critters such as euglena, amoeba, and paramecium. They used their well honed microscope skills to chase the protozoans around a hanging drop slide.

Anatomy
The Anatomy class completed their study of neurobiology this module. The class took an alternate route of study on this unit using an NIH curriculum that focuses on the biology of the brain through the study of addiction. The culminating activity was dissecting a sheep brain.

Environmental Science
The Environmental Science class completed their unit on land forms and types of maps. Students can now read topographical maps as well as recognize the many different features of maps.

Physical Science with Dan Hill
This module the students finished their introduction to subatomic particles and the structure of the atom, and have moved on to looking at the history and structure of the Periodic Table of the elements.

Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

As we move into the final months of the year, the modern era has started to come into focus in our history classes. World History encountered the rise of Nazism and Fascism in Europe and the resulting Second World War. US History has immersed itself in the heroic struggles of the Civil Rights Movement. Psychology, meanwhile, has been delving into mental illness and its treatment. Current Events has taken a critical look at economic development in the Third World, consumerism in the United States, and environmental sustainability. Civics, meanwhile, has begun looking at public policy issues on a more in-depth basis, with a specific focus on health care policy as well as policies designed to limit the rising costs of college education.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish I - Students completed their study of vocabulary related to leisure activities and celebrations and learned the use of irregular verbs to describe these.

Spanish II - Students completed their study of the imperfect tense as well as reciprocal activities. They have learned the use of simple past tenses when both preterite and imperfect are used simultaneously in sentences.

Spanish III - We have studied the subjunctive tense of both regular and irregular verbs. Students have read and completed their study of "Una carta a Dios," a Mexican short story. They presented to the class their creative projects based on this well-known story.

Physical Education with Paige Passavant

The Upper School class has been enjoying our unit "Student-Led Teaching". This unit puts your child in the role of teacher, equipment manager and referee. When it is their "turn" they plan their lesson, gather and set up the equipment, organize teams and explain rules, handle classroom behavior and fairly referee games. The process aids me in their final evaluation of skills/techniques learned throughout the school year. It is amazing to watch the seriousness with which they take their teaching responsibilities. We will continue this unit next module then conclude our year with post-testing. This is my favorite unit as each student "shines" in their own way.

Jazz with Glenn Mehrbach

Despite the Spring Break and other interruptions in the regular schedule, we were able to get a lot done. We added 2 new songs to our repertoire: Thelonius Monk's "Well You Needn't" and the jazz standard "Green Dolphin Street" by Bronislau Kaper. They were the most challenging songs we've attempted. The Monk tune for its rhythmic and harmonic complexity, especially in the bridge section, and "Green Dolphin Street" because of its constant shift from a Latin to a Swing beat.

We continued our work on group improvisation, continued to refine our older numbers, and started to think about which songs we would like to use for the upcoming Arts Showcase.

Art (7th & 8th grades) with Heather Cramer

We are continuing with a basic introduction to drawing techniques. We learned about contour drawing - drawing each others' faces without looking down at our papers and not lifting the pencil. This allows us to truly see what we are drawing and to loosen up our drawing hands. We took our final drawing and painted an abstract face with watercolors. Wonderful creations! The next week, we learned about placement and proportion on the page. Using bottles as a still life, we closed one eye to "flatten" the image, and visually measured where objects connect and are placed in the image.

Drama with Susie Kless

We are moving right along in our preparation for Evening of the Arts. Please be aware that all students in the class are expected to attend this performance - we have other cast members depending on them.

Guidance Update from Thelma Glynn

Seniors awaited their final decisions from colleges while juniors worked on their autobiographies and prepared for the ACT exam. Students of all grade levels worked on summer program applications.

Module 8

2008-03-21T14:28:00.000-04:00

English with Jill Sugg

Grades seven through nine celebrated Black History Month with Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun." English 10,11,12 read F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic jazz age novel The Great Gatsby and watched the film with Robert Redford starring as the "old sport" himself. Advanced Placement Literature students wrote about poetry and read Nabokov's Lolita.

Math with Annie Tally

Math classes have been quite busy this week with the mid-semester looming and many students striving to complete half of their minimum requirements for the semester. On Tuesday March 11th, the MathCounts club went on a field trip to the computing group of the Environmental Protection Agency to see how math is used to analyze the spread and control of pollution.

Upper School Sciences with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry
The Chemistry class students have completed their study of water and its properties. Students actively engaged in many laboratory experiments that were both fun and informative.

Biology
The Biology class completed their microbiology unit. Students successfully cultured and stained bacteria from around the school. Aseptic technique, simple staining and gram stain procedures were mastered by all on a lab practical administered at the end of the unit. We also enjoyed a discussion with Dr. Walter Hill, regarding the safety of our food supply and bacterial contamination.

Anatomy
The Anatomy class students have completed the major laboratory assignment for this course. Students spent approximately 4 weeks dissecting a fetal pig and learning about all of the major organ systems. Students were wonderful laboratory practitioners and handled the investigation with much maturity.

Environmental Science
The Environmental Science students have completed their study of soil formation, erosion and deposition. Students conducted labs to investigate the effects of freezing on roadways and what types of soil are the most permeable.

Physical Science with Dan Hill
Module 8 saw us looking at the generalized properties of matter, and its end coincided with the end of our study of heat transfer, phase changes, and gas behavior. With Module 9 we will be diving into the structure of the atom.

Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

World History class has examined World War I and its aftermath. US History students, meanwhile, have been examining the Second World War. Psychology class has learned about various states of consciousness including sleeping, dreaming, hypnosis, and drug-induced states. Current Events class has looked at history as a process of active interpretation and tackled topics associated with the War on Terror. Civics class has moved into public policy studies, beginning with an introduction to the logic of argumentation and the evaluation of information sources. Specifically, we have been looking at the health care debate.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish I - Students in Spanish I finished their study of leisure activities. We have started a new chapter about sports and celebrations and are learning more irregular verbs in the present tense. We are stressing classroom conversation and memorization of new vocabulary. Students are reminded to review the material nightly.

Spanish II - Students in Spanish II finished their study of driving and directions. We are studying the imperfect tense. This chapter incorporates new vocabulary related to their childhood and memories of family celebrations when they were younger. Students are reminded to review the material nightly.

Spanish III - Students in Spanish III studied affirmative and negative commands. They are writing summaries of cultural readings and have begun to study the subjunctive tense. We continue to stress oral communication and class discussions in Spanish. Students are reminded to review the material nightly.

Physical Education with Paige Passavant

We have started our student-led classes. Each student has the opportunity to teach a lesson to their peers. They are not only teachers, they are equipment managers, umpires, classroom managers, etc. It's a wonderful opportunity for the students to get a look at life on the other side of the desk.

Jazz with Glenn Mehrbach

We have continued to add to our repertoire of songs and styles, and refined the songs we have already learned. We began work on Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba," our first Latin tune. We regularly do an exercise with "call and response," where the students improvise a phrase with a pre-determined set of notes, and the others imitate that phrase, each on their own instrument.

Each student continues to improve in important areas. Channing (piano) is learning how to use her left hand for chording and her right for improvising melodies, and also how to voice chords with both hands. Edwin (bass) is learning to refine his "walking bass" technique, and to adapt his playing by listening to the others in the group. Cami (flute) is becoming more courageous in her improvisations, as well as more defined and colorful with her articulations. David (drum-set and percussion) is learning to play "in the pocket," with a steady beat, and to improvise fills on both drums and conga with fewer notes and more precise rhythm. Rita (vocals, drum-set and percussion) is becoming more creative with both her phrasing with the songs and her improvisational "scat singing." And her repertoire of drum fills continues to expand.

We also took time out to have a "Listening Day," where we listened to recordings of songs we were learning performed by various artists, including Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Astrud Gilberto. At least one day each week we spend some time on music theory, especially as it applies to jazz. Topics included "the circle of fifths," "the harmonic series," and "common jazz chord progressions."

Art (7th & 8th grades) with Heather Cramer

We worked on "graffiti names." Using colored pencils, we practiced some shading techniques. Then we outlined our names on black or white paper using large overlapping letters, and filled those letters with shaded colors and various images. With these skills now in hand, we looked at images of mandalas that were done using colored pencil on black paper. Our last class was to create a mandala image on black (or white) paper. The students worked in complete silence while listening to music. The mandalas that were produced were quite astounding. Wonderful variety of images and techniques. I believe they also discovered another level of their creative spirits by working in silence and being totally focused on their work.

Drama with Susie Kless

All of the groups have made their final selections of material. One group is doing an original piece. We have a one act called Overtones, a scene from, 'Of Mice and Men' (which they read in English class) and the Abbott & Costello classic, 'Who's On First?' We have some children who prefer to work on the production end. They will be working with all of the classes, taking care of props, scenery, back stage help, and program/poster design.

Guidance Update from Thelma Glynn

As seniors continue to gain acceptances and win scholarships, juniors have started the process by registering to take the ACT in April and the SAT in May. They have also begun work on their autobiographies which are due on April 8 (the day we return from Spring Break).

Students of all ages have been busy signing up for summer programs. Several times a week I call attention to the newest information that has come in the mail. Information about all of these opportunities can be found in the folder on the Summer Opportunities crate in the Upstairs Hall.

Module 7

2008-02-27T08:23:00.001-05:00

English with Jill Sugg

Seventh graders read "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams and wrote essays on either symbolism or the characters in various states of denial throughout the play. They viewed the film starring Joanne Woodward as Amanda Wingfield. Eighth and ninth graders, as well as some 10th, 11th, and 12th graders read the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers and put themselves in the position of jurors who must decide the fate of a young man. Advanced Placement students read Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman".

Math with Annie Tally

The math students are progressing well with their work. Most remember to turn in the weekly review sheets that keep their basic skills sharp. I will begin posting an SAT math problem of the day and expect at least the upperclassmen to attempt it. I-Pod use is now allowed in all classes and seems to be helping everyone to settle into their routines.

Upper School Sciences with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry

Chemistry students have completed their study of the gas laws. They did very well on the exam and participated in several laboratory activities. Pancakes, hydrogen generators and blowing up eggs were enjoyed by all.

Biology

The Biology class has completed its study of reproduction, growth and development. Students are now looking forward to becoming microbiologists.

Anatomy

Students of Anatomy/Physiology are working on their major laboratory assignment for this semester. Students also hold grand rounds weekly and present case studies in their ongoing study of clinical diagnostics.

Environmental Science

Classification of minerals and rocks has been the topic of discussion in Earth/Environmental Science. Students completed some great tri-fold flyers that would make anyone want to buy their assigned mineral.

Physical Science with Dan Hill

This module we finished looking at some introductory techniques and concepts like graphing and significant figures, and have moved on to looking at the physical properties of matter. We have begun with the most basic: mass, weight, volume, and density.

Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

World History is speeding towards the 20th century, encountering nationalism, industrialization, and imperialism along the way. US History is in the depths of the Great Depression. Psychology is exploring personality development, learning, and motivation. Current Events has been building upon its observations of the presidential race with studies of the legislative and judicial branches, while Civics has been examining the role of the federal government in the economy.

Spanish with Celia Battle

Spanish I students have finished a chapter about nutrition and health. They made posters of the food pyramid and presented these to the class. We have introduced contemporary readings to increase vocabulary and improve communication, both orally and in writing.

Spanish II students have finished a chapter about chores, direct object pronouns and irregular verbs in the preterite tense. We are introducing cultural and contemporary readings to increase vocabulary and improve both oral and written communication in Spanish.

Spanish III has covered the future tense of regular and irregular verbs. Students completed their study of nutrition and healthy lifestyles. We have introduced cultural readings and are learning about prehispanic Mexico.

Physical Education with Paige Passavant

We spent Module 7 finishing our unit in Gymnastics. After taping our routines, the students will watch and evaluate their performances. This process enables the students to see what they did/didn't do and how they will modify their performance next time.

Jazz with Glenn Mehrbach

Having begun with the class on the last day of January, we are just starting to make music. I have introduced many styles of jazz, beginning with the blues, and moving on to some standards of the jazz repertoire, including: Duke Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," Benny Goodman's "Stompin' at the Savoy," Neal Hefti's "Cute," and Ray Charles' "Hallelujah, I Love Him So." We have also improvised 12 bar blues in various tempos and keys, with Rita Glynn either supplying on-the-spot lyrics, or trying her hand at scat (making up her own melody lines with nonsense syllables - "shoo-be-do-wah" is a classic). I have been writing minimal musical charts and notes to get the music started, while encouraging the students to embellish and augment with their own improvisations.

Art with Heather Cramer

My first two weeks at Camelot as the new art teacher were delightful. We are spending these first weeks getting to know each other with several projects. Our first was "Freeing Our Creative Spirit." I asked the 7th and 8th graders what they felt "creativity" is - and where that comes from. We talked about all of the different ways we absorb our life experiences - eyes, ears, touch - and then to our hearts. In our hearts, we create our own unique response - and our hands become the "tools" we use to create an image expressing this experience. To honor these tools, we drew around our hands to make an image on paper, then tissue-collaged them for a burst of color, and the following week painted black around the background to make the colors pop! The variety of images and ideas was exciting! Each student gave their image a name and told us how it represented their creative spirit. These are on display with the other grades beside the first floor staircase.

We have already begun our next project called, "What's In a Name?" This will be their "graffiti" name done with white pencil on black paper. We will explore shading with the white and colored pencils. (This also helps me learn their names.)

The 7th and 8th grades have expressed an interest in more traditional art training, so we will begin with drawing and move through several processes to painting after completing the three introductory lessons.

Drama with Susie Kless

The students will be writing short skits in small groups. This will give everyone a chance to do something special, and more importantly something they are interested in. They had many wonderful ideas. It was difficult to choose just one. We are also aware of the time period we have, and decided to save a big production for another time.

Guidance Update from Thelma Glynn

The seniors are in "wait and see" mode with their college applications and so the juniors have been the focus. We have met a few times to interpret PSAT scores and to explore the tools available at the College Board website. All juniors had a family conference in which transcripts were reviewed and plans were drawn for the path to graduation.

Meanwhile, there is a genuine push to see that students of all ages make meaningful summer plans that expand their interests and talents. Whether it be summer camps, volunteer work, employment or classes our office has an ever expanding collection of opportunities kept on file for families to explore.

Module 6

2008-02-06T11:35:00.000-05:00

English with Jill Sugg

Advanced Placement Literature students read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey and wrote essays on various aspects of the novel. They also critiqued other students' writing. Eighth and ninth graders read "Antigone" by Sophocles. The advanced class made a puppet film of the tragedy that they plan to put on YouTube for the amusement of all. Seventh graders studied "The Odyssey"; they greatly enjoyed the TV mini-series because it featured "cool" special effects to bring the monsters and mythological gods to life. Regular level 10th, 11th, and 12th graders read the adolescent novel You Don't Know Me by David Klass and produced some truly honest, insightful writing in class.

Math with Annie Tally The math students have settled back into their routines with the beginning of a new semester. In response to their teacher/course evaluations, we have instituted a new policy of allowing I-Pod use among the upperclassmen during class to accommodate those whose learning styles are not suited to quiet study. This has also benefited those who do prefer silence by helping the others to focus better on their work, so it seems to be a win-win all around. I have already witnessed increased productivity from many of the students from both camps!

The programming elective has ended, and most of the students are nearing completion of their programs that play the Master Mind game. Clearly, they have learned the basics of programming which will help them in any pursuit that requires logical thought and meticulous planning, and I am very pleased with the work they have done in this class.

Upper School Sciences with Lori Hilliard

Chemistry

The Chemistry students have successfully completed their study of Quantum Mechanics and are now working on gas laws. The students are moving through the curriculum quite quickly and are eager to do more lab activities soon.

Biology

The Biology class has finished its study of genetics, both Mendelian and modern. Students were very engaged in the topic and seemed to enjoy analyzing karyotypes and strands of DNA.

Anatomy

The Anatomy class is completing its unit on the muscular system. Students are learning the origins, insertions and actions of the more common muscle groups.

Environmental Science

The Environmental Science students have turned their focus to the study of Earth Science this semester. Students have just finished a multi-day laboratory activity on sand and beach formation. Physical Science with Dan Hill The physical science students have started the course with a review of the Scientific Method, a look at what it means to be "scientific", and a discussion of the merits of the Method as a knowledge source. We have also had a brief graphing review, looking at the purpose and structure of a graph, and a discussion of the meaning of the slope of a line.

Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm

World History has been examining the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and the French Revolution. US History has examined the Progressive Era and World War II. Psychology has looked at the theories of Freud and Jung. Current events and civics have both been examining the presidential primaries.

Spanish with Celia Battle Spanish I students have learned the uses of both forms of the verb "to be" in Spanish as well as prepositions and adverbs that are used with the verb 'estar.' We have introduced the study of food, meals and customs relating to these. This unit includes the conjugations of -er and -ir verbs in the present tense. We continue to have daily conversations in class to increase students' ability to communicate more comfortably in Spanish.

Spanish II students are learning about clothes and shopping. We have introduced the preterit tense, demonstrative adjectives and possessive pronouns. We are continuing our spontaneous conversations in class, which relate to the topic at hand and also incorporate previously learned vocabulary and grammar concepts.

Spanish III classroom conversations are providing students the opportunity to speak Spanish in a casual and relaxed atmosphere. We have reviewed vocabulary related to food and meals and are beginning to study healthy eating habits and exercise. We are studying the future tense and are incorporating it in our daily conversations.

Physical Education with Paige Passavant This module our students practiced their gymnastic skills as we delved into our Educational Gymnastics unit. This year we have incorporated (the Camelot version of) the balance beam. This new addition will add some flair to their routines. Taping of their routines will start within the next week.

Music and Specials with....???

Music instruction the first part of the module continued with Matthew. The jazz class is now under the instruction of Glenn Mehrbach (check out his impressive credentials at www.pizzadreams.com) and we have added a rock group under the instruction of Dan Hill. In addition, seventh and eighth graders will now have one health class a week and will have drama (taught by Susie Kless) and art (taught by Heather Cramer) added to their weekly class schedule.

Guidance Update from Thelma Glynn

Module 6 saw the last of the senior college applications submitted. Senior families should now be hard at work completing the FAFSA and PROFILE forms for financial aid as most of those deadlines are in February. Sophomores and juniors have met with me twice to review their PSAT scores and to gain familiarity with the tools available to them through the College Board website. All sophomores and juniors have had a family conference scheduled for either February 14 or 15 and, in addition, should plan to attend the required college planning meeting on Thursday, February 21.

Module 5

2008-01-03T01:08:00.000-05:00

English with Jill Sugg English 7, 8/9, and 8/9 Advanced read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and saw the film starring Gary Sinese and John Malkovich. English 8/9 Advanced, 10/11/12, and the A.P. Lit class read the popular contemporary adolescent novel Speak and saw the film. Honest, revealing class discussion followed and the upperclassmen invented some interesting characters in first person narrative creative writing pieces. Sophomores through seniors also read the classic novel The Scarlet Letter and deserve praise for surviving Hawthorne, often considered a rite of passage in high school. Little did Hawthorne imagine he would wax as daunting to kids as the Puritans he satirized. Nevertheless, we forged on and found in Chillingworth a villain to rival Shakespeare's Iago. Math with Annie Tally There was quite a flurry of activity in the math classes with many students trying to wrap up the semester with as many credits as possible. It has been a real test of their mettle and most have risen quite admirably to the challenge. The programming class worked on their final project for the semester which was to write a program that plays Master Mind, a game of logic. This program utilizes all of the skills they have been acquiring all semester. Upper School Sciences with Lori Hilliard Chemistry Chemistry students have had a very successful semester. The completion of the stoichiometry unit has been a major accomplishment. I am very proud of their efforts. Biology The Biology class students have been working their way through the study of Genetics. We have completed Mendelian Genetics and are now working on the structure of DNA, protein synthesis, protein folding, the human genome and implications of these studies in everyday life. Anatomy "Dem bones, Dem bones" has been the theme song for Anatomy students this module. They have successfully navigated through the skeletal system including two oral ID exams and a theory exam. Check out their art work on the Camelot website. Environmental Science The Environmental Science class has completed their semester by examining the many ways in which the theme of evolution is tied into life around us. The students also attended an all day seminar at UNC -CH on Extreme Climate Change. As always, our students were some of the best in the crowd, asking thoughtful questions and showing their leadership capacity. Physical Science with Dan Hill In our final module of the semester we looked at the structure of the periodic table, and finished up by discussing simple bonding. The students were excited about electrolyzing water and then recombining the products in the usual way. Everyone has done a wonderful job this semester; I'll miss them after the break. Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm World History students read works from the Enlightenment, including Locke, Rousseau, and Descartes. The US History class examined the Civil War and the late 1800s including Reconstruction, Indian removal, and industrialization. The History Elective students looked at specific issues related to the War on Terror, including the Protect America Act and the Military Commissions Act, and worked on their policy proposals. Current Events students finished their stock market simulation, read articles on the presidential election, and debated the death penalty. Civics class learned about the Supreme Court and examined specific cases that demonstrate its purpose and function. Spanish with Celia Battle Upper School students have been challenged to increase their receptive language as they become accustomed to listening to a native speaker in class every day. This has been a new experience for them and their expressive language is increasing as they acquire more vocabulary during our spontaneous classroom talks. This daily routine is an ongoing and dynamic exercise that is helping the students to communicate more effectively in Spanish. I am very pleased with the effort and enthusiasm that students have shown in all of my classes in the past three weeks. We are definitely forging ahead! Performing Arts with Matthew Etherington 7th/8th Grades Congratulations to the 7th & 8th Grade Chorus who pulled off a memorable performance at Academic Fair! We were lucky enough to watch a parent video of the event, this module, which gave the students some well-deserved positive feedback. The students were able to thoughtfully critique their performance and this was a valuable lesson. Since then, the group has been loving our new song Lean On Me (Bill Withers). It's been wonderful to hear them sing with genuine enjoyment (and technical proficiency!). In our General Music class, the 8th Grade students were lucky enough to be part of a masterclass with visiting artist Carl Nevitt, and the 7th Grade students have been learning a challenging instrumental piece, by Carl Orff, on the xylophones and percussion instruments. Jazz Combo The Jazz Combo have been basking in satisfaction, since their incredible performance at our Academic Fair. This was a milestone for the group and it was a pleasure for them to receive such positive compliments from parents and students alike. This module, we have been challenged by some tricky Jazz arrangements of popular Holiday songs: We Three Kings and Let It Snow. Another new activity in our theory class has been transcription. Listening to Miles Davis' solo on the tune So What, and attempting to write down the notes, is a brand new skill for all, but one that will develop a strong musical ear and a deeper understanding of the music they are trying to play. Physical Education with Paige Passavant We began exploring a new area of our "Wellness" curriculum with the unit on Health Education and Practice. We studied the five dimensions of what it means to be "well." We touched on various ways to maintain our physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual health. Guidance Update from Thelma Glynn The seniors rose to the challenge of meeting their January 1 college application deadlines with a flurry of activity and productivity. On January 8th they will turn in all of their remaining college applications and then it will be their parents' turn to fill out forms as it will be time to file the FAFSA and PROFILE forms to apply for financial aid! The Class of '09 will now become the focus and over the next month we'll set out a plan of action for standardized testing (SAT and ACT) for the spring semester. We will also work on creating preliminary college lists and scheduling some more college visits. All Upper School students should turn their attention to enrolling in worthwhile summer programs. The guidance office is assembling a collection of the material flooding our mailboxes. Many of these programs have February deadlines so students and parents should begin to explore programs of interest now.