With the National Association of Independent Schools' Annual Conference taking place in San Francisco, Bill volunteered to be an active blogger from afar. His blog was included with those of other volunteers in a live feed, and two entries were selected for inclusion in Chris Bigenho's "The Daily Find." Bill posted four entries during the week.

"The Snow Day That Never Was" (also linked from last week's Snapshot) a pre-conference posting including vignettes from a Wednesday when most public schools took off.

"Not Quite Post-Feminist" another pre-conference posting in reaction to an article on "Enlightened Sexism."

"It's Almost Like Being There- thoughts from the NAIS Annual Conference" (the featured blog entry) in reaction to Thursday sessions on joy and playfulness, creating a unique product, empowering students, innovation, and research-based pedagogy.

"Strongly Swimming: Friday at NAIS" in reaction to Friday sessions on white privilege, speaking with boldness and conviction, and the future of schooling.

Humanities 8 finished its Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl unit by creating an online blog that summarizes and analyzes the text in addition to using multimedia, which gives the blog some life. The students have recently completed their research projects for the newest unit, Animal Farm. The class began by looking at the Bolshevik Revolution, totalitarian governments, and industry that changed the economic makeup of the world during the early twentieth century. The class has also begun to examine the backlashes of these elements in the Red Scare and McCarthyism. Furthemore, the class has done some work by looking at small and large economies by actually creating a market in which they were trading goods and services. As always, we supplement the curriculum with grammar and vocabulary.

Two Fridays ago, MOCA rehearsed their Color Wars skit. It was skillfully written, well acted, and very well received at the all-school meeting. The middle schoolers earned the "But Who Could Compete With the Middle School?!" award from the faculty panel, to very  loud and very long cheers!

This past Friday, MOCA discussed and approved two ideas for weekend activities this spring, ice skating and go-carting. We will invite the Academy at Charlemont, Bement and Williston to these activities.

The students also voted to instruct their StuCo representatives to submit a proposal that the entire middle school be allowed to vote for StuCo President this May (last year, only rising 9th graders were allowed to vote). The stated reasons were that “This year, the middle school is a lot more involved in StuCo because they have representatives. Also, what StuCo and the StuCo president does affects the middle school as well as the upper school.”

Several students also proposed that the middle school be allowed to attend Vespers (a formal ceremony two days before graduation in which Seniors say good-bye to the school) this year, as they all have Senior Big Sisters for the first time ever. Ashley D., a Senior RA on the middle school hallway and Co-President of StuCo this year, has already told them she will make the proposal herself. Bill's understanding is that the Senior Class as a whole has discussed and supports this idea.

All three groups have completed a second draft of their one-act plays. Kim Mancuso, the Theatre 7 teacher who will be responsible for guiding the students through the production of their plays during the spring trimester, was able to join the class near the end of the week to react to the scripts and help move them to third draft stage. Friday's class will entail final editing for grammar, spelling and punctuation. Each script is unique to the group who wrote it, especially given the very different characters each student came up with. The scripts, however, are also united by more than the common theme of "learning to appreciate differences through turmoil." There is a subtle, underlying tone to each play of optimism and strong faith in the best of human nature.

The plays will be produced in the middle school performance at the end of the year, and promise to be excellent. We hope to see you all there!

Middle school instrumental class has been making good progress on their pieces that they are preparing for the spring concert. The beginner class is getting through the entire arrangement of “Thriller.” This is quite an accomplishment, since many of the students had very little experience on their instrument coming into this year. “Jump, Jive, and Wail” is almost complete with just a few sections left to cover. Congratulations go out to Maah, Jordyn, Hannah, and Tulsa for moving up into the advanced class. Piper also would be in the advanced class, but is currently needed in the beginner class for her role in the rhythm section. We had a few instruments go temporarily missing this term (a little scary), but all students have since found their instruments and have resumed their normal routine. Most students have done better in regard to turning in their practice logs, which makes me happy! Practice is the key to success on an instrument. Other highlights…Jane Logan’s bass part on “Thriller,” watching Ashley Chung run from flute to drums to bass (what a talent!), hearing Alissa Ames progress on the flute since last year, Tulsa Douglas is able to play a high Eb on the trumpet after only six months!! Incredible!, the guitarists are getting most of their chords, Renata is able to play the rock rhythm to “Thriller,” and many more.

In seventh grade the students are finishing up a large project in environmental science.  As an introduction to the topic, they are building a foundation of what living things need in their environment.  The project involves designing and carrying out an experiment, using their math skills to analyze data, writing a report and presenting the findings to the class.  The past few weeks have been busy and exciting as everyone is developing their science skills and using their math to understand what they are observing.

"We've got to start teaching our kids about food in schools. Period."
- Jamie Oliver

In the evening, houseparents have seen a few of the girls exhibiting unhealthy eating habits, consuming either imbalanced meals lacking in one or more necessary components, excessive junk food, or insufficient amounts of food. Recently, Joan Pajak, the Director of the Health Care Center, met with the middle school houseparents and some of the advisors to discuss nutrition in teenage girls and how best to support them. Among her main points:
- Teenage girls need about 2200 calories a day on average, with the need for iron and calcium especially strong during adolescence.
- In order to maintain a healthy metabolism, these calories should be distributed through the day in smaller amounts rather than concentrated in three big meals.
- Breakfast is an imperative.
- Daily exercise also contributes to a healthy metabolism.
- A healthy diet needs to include protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and fiber, with some fat and a minimum of sugars.
- It can be helpful for girls to understand what a portion actually looks like - restaurants and the fast food industry have as much as tripled portions from years ago.

At the beginning of spring trimester, one of the nurses will meet with the students to discuss proper nutrition and healthy eating. We do have an advantage over many schools in that we have fresh fruit available all day, including at snacks, and fresh vegetables in the salad bar at lunch and dinner. We are discussing the portion size of desserts with the dining hall staff. We are also working on a system for the spring to help the students reflect on their eating habits, and we are considering including this information in their spring student-led conferences. We would like to involve any interested parents in the process, and welcome your thoughts and input. Please email these to Bill.

For further information on healthy eating:

Jamie Oliver's TED award talk on the obesity problem in the U.S. and the need for proper education in schools on nutrition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIwrV5e6fMY

FAQ on anorexia from womenshealth.gov at:
http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/anorexia-nervosa.cfm#f

Information on proper portion size:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-portion-size-plate

Notes from the 7-8 Vocal Music Class

What does your daughter accomplish in 7-8 vocal class? My last assignment to the vocal music class was to write a newspaper article in which each student should write about her experience in vocal music class. This article should include what she liked and disliked and what she had learned from our term together in vocal music. Here are bits and pieces of their reflections:

“What I liked most about the class is how we multi task a lot. We work hard and sing beautiful songs while we have fun and talk about the real world problems. I also like how we learn that there is more to singing than having a good voice, because everyone has a good voice on their own pitch and in their own way. My favorite part was when we each got to be a conductor for the class.” Yasmin
“I had a solo in one of the songs. It was hard to sing alone in front of a crowd, I was very nervous. I ended up doing just fine. We all did great.” Anonymous
“This was the first music class I have ever been in that had us in groups like Soprano I, Soprano II and Altos. In our performance we sang many kinds of songs. She taught us the background of every song. “ Kaci
I really like vocal class. It was challenging but, it was a lot of fun. I thought it was challenging because I had never had a singing class before. My favorite part was doing a solo. I was really nervous, but in the end I was really happy that I did it. The part I didn’t like was the quizzes.” Olivia
“Two of my classmates have amazing voices. A lot of people do but the two girls made me want to try harder. So what did vocal class teach me, it taught me to sing, to enjoy music…to give it my all and everyone can sing!” Francesca
“The scariest part of vocal was when it came to the performance. No, it wasn’t the singing itself, it was the risers. One of our songs had movement in it and when everyone was moving, the whole risers shook. Whenever we stepped, the risers shook and squeaked, along with the music.” Anonymous
“This semester I found out how big my voice was. Cyndee matched everyone’s voice to an instrument. I found out I was a French horn. I went from being a soprano to an alto, which felt much more comfortable. I remember getting really excited when we hit a really low note. This semester, I think my voice developed a lot because of this class. “ Jordyn
“At first I didn’t like vocal class, because I thought I couldn’t sing. As time went on I began to realize that we took this class for a reason. That reason let us express our emotions. Now I love to sing, and I realize that I can sing and I am proud of that. “Leira
“In 7-8 vocal I learned many things I did not know before. I learned to read the different parts of the staff, alto, soprano I, soprano II. I also learned about how different musicians compose their music. I also learned about polyphony. The hardest part of this class was the actual singing, because I had never sung before. At the end I was able to face all the challenges and find a way to get them out of my way. Besides, you never know when you’re going to need to stand up and sing.” Renata
“As a whole the middle school vocal class really opened my eyes. Together we worked hard on getting our pitches, the melody, the right harmony and most important feeling the music.” Erin
“I became acutely aware that to be a vocalist, you need not only raw talent, but more will power that you need to run a mile. I am a singer, but I am a sololist, not a part of a chorus. If you want a challenge try going from singing your music your own way to blending and working with 17 other voices. We sang our songs and our solos. Our group worked and we sounded good.” Maraina
“We learned about the history of music, singing the songs and having Cyndee talk with us about the music. I LOVED sitting next to my friend, it made the class even more fun. To learn to read the notes, we played music symbol Bingo with sweets.” Alisa
“ I love how we can incorporate fun and games into what we learned. I personally didn’t want to do a solo, and I appreciate having the choice not to do a solo. Over all this class wasn’t just about singing la la la , it was really learning our notes, staying in tune, holding your own part.” Alissa
“In the choir I sang in before, we sounded like little children trying to sing, but it was different this year. We sounded like a real choir. After the concert, I listened to us singing on you tube and we sounded really good. Go Stoneleigh!" Piper
“What I liked about his class hmmmm….Well there’s a lot. For example, “Benedictus”; that song was so pretty when we sang it. It sounded like we were a church choir that had trained for two years. Not only do we learn the music, we have to learn where it comes from. We had to learn a dance to music, “Supercalifraglisticexpealidocious”. It was so confusing but I eventually got it.” Maah
“The bell rings signaling for the class to begin. Everyone is in their seats, and chatting away. Cyndee, the teacher walks in and greets her students. Everyone rises for warm ups. We begin by singing “red leather , yellow leather “in three parts.. and we all sing. “ Sophia
“When I first come to vocal class, I was very embarrassed. Because, I never had this kind of vocal class before in my country. It was hard for me to memorize the words but the songs were very good. The performance was very cool ! Lots of people came to see our performance. It was a new experience for me I like it very much. “Hannah
 

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!