Dear High School Families,

 

Welcome back from what I hope was a wonderful Spring Break. The start of the third trimester is always a busy time in the high school. While the tenth and eleventh graders excitedly take on the challenges of some new elective classes, the seniors are putting the finishing touches on their Senior Projects. They will spend 30 hours during each of the next six weeks answering their underlying essential senior project question. This time can be spent in an internship or apprenticeship, shadowing or interviewing people in their area of interest, engaged in independent research, or working on an independent creative undertaking; most students do a variety of these things. This year’s slate of projects looks especially engaging. Seniors have chosen to focus on a wide range of topics, from fashion, farming, and writing; social justice, theatre, and philosophy to special effects, game design, and film making; sports, business, politics and more. We’ll even have a number of students creating unique multi-media arts instillations! They begin the experiential component this Monday, and their daily presence in the high school will be missed for the next six weeks. Happily a good number of student doing independent projects will be working in the building, so we won’t be completely bereft.

 

The seniors are not the only group that will engage in learning outside the walls of school. Later this month, the juniors will travel for a week to various parts of the country on our eleventh grade trip. Our students and faculty have been working tirelessly this year to develop six unique experiential learning programs in six locations across the country, each of which originated from the minds and imaginations of our students. We are proud not only of the breadth of our students' interests and passions reflected in these trips, but the depth and focus with which they will have the opportunity to explore these important issues together in their groups. I look forward to sharing more details. There is an evening for Junior Parents about this trip next Wednesday, April 12^th at 6:30pm in the PAC.

 

Over the next two weeks, the visual arts teachers (Photography, Studio Art, Sculpture, and Media Arts) will transform our building into an art gallery for the annual High School Visual Arts Showcase. You are invited - on Thursday, April 20^th from 6:00pm to 7:30pm - to come to the high school to see examples of fine student work from this year.

 

In our assembly this afternoon I read an old Yiddish folktale to the 9^th and 10^th graders “Mishke the Kvetch" about appreciating the good things you have. Even on a rainy and dreary day, Spring is a time when I feel a sense of gratitude after a long winter. I am thankful that the trees know it’s time to bloom, thankful the weather is starting to warm up, and thankful that you have entrusted us with the education of your children. It is a joy and pleasure to be a part of all of their journeys in high school.