Rounding the corner to Reception, I ran smack into an unusually large group of people for the time of night when I was leaving. I knew immediately that our brand new 8th grader from Korea must have arrived and, sure enough, my eyes fell first on the beaming face of her new roommate, then on the new girl herself. Though she must have been exhausted from travelling and from the 14-hour time change, she looked strong, alert and happy to be here. She greeted me, reaching out to shake my hand. After a brief conversation in which nervous yet eager smiles spoke as loudly as words, she, her roommate and the family friend who had accompanied her to school picked up her things and headed off to move her in. Sally, Mrs. Patt and I watched them go, and I saw Sally smilingly shake her head ever so slightly, perhaps touched as I was by the amazing blend of courage, trust and hope we were witnessing.

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Humanities 8 has just begun its "Antebellum South" unit in which the students are currently gathering their resources to present their projects. Each student has selected a relevant topic, and they will demonstrate their expertise in that particular area. This way when we read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the students will have a larger contextual view of the life of Harriet Jacobs. In addition, the students will also explore the affects of modern-day slavery and the unfortunate role it continues to play.
 

MOCA is continuing to meet every Friday. This week's agenda includes a report from Student Council from our 7th and 8th grade representatives; continued work on fundraising for Heifer International, the Dakin-Pioneer Valley Humane Society, cancer and AIDS research, and the Smile Train; elections for the next pair of MOCA leaders; and the next weekend activity MOCA wishes to submit for consideration. This weekend, we will be having the ice skating trip requested at the last MOCA meeting.

While driving back from community service, some of the 8th graders were commenting that MOCA is more fun this year because they are getting more accomplished throughout the year. This is delightful to hear. We hope to continue on this positive track, and as always welcome further input.

In Foundations in Language and Culture, we return to the winter trimester to begin making preparations for the Lunar New Year, beginning on the eve of February 13th this year. Within each family and region of the world that celebrates the Lunar New Year, there are different ways of celebrating the same tradition. We will begin to gain a more detailed understanding of this and other celebrations through research and student interviews with the international students and faculty at Stoneleigh-Burnham School. Creating traditional foods, singing some traditional songs, and playing games to learn the vocabulary will be much more rewarding when we do them with students from China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.
 

The Humanities 7 class is transitioning from the "raiseURvoice" unit to the theatre unit. The morning reading book is To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals not only with perceptions of race but also with perceptions of gender. To connect this to the Theatre unit, we will view selected extracts from the movie and discuss how story-telling differs in this format from literature. Meanwhile, students are reading and discussing either "A Midsummer Night's Dream" or "Jane Eyre" (the movie script) and will be watching extracts of video productions of both these works. The class is continuing its fundraising project to aid victims of domestic violence, polishing and producing a short video on racism and sexism, and preparing for a day of debate and discussion to which other schools will be invited. They are also thinking ahead to the one-act plays on which they will collaborate; these will be written in Humanities 7 and then produced in Theatre 7 this spring. Finally, they are continuing work with independent reading, writing, and vocabulary-building.

Discussions continue to be lively, energy high, and enthusiasm in no short supply. It is wonderful to be back together again.

The School maintains an online calendar of events for use by parents, students, and other members of our community. You may access this calendar at:

http://www.sbschool.org/home/calendar.asp

You may also access a copy of the academic calendar through the parent portal, signing in at:

http://www.sbschool.org/home/content.asp?section=parents

If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us . Thank you!