Middle schoolers took part in the Letters About Literature Contest. The event is run by the Library of Congress. Students are asked to write a letter to an author (living or dead) about how a book changed the student’s view of themselves or of something in the world. Our fifth graders fall in Level 1 which encompasses fourth through sixth graders. For each level, finalists are chosen and then first, second, and third place winners are selected from the finalists. This year we had four finalists: Mackie Boone, Lauren Boyer, Celia Servaites, and Peyton Sullivan. Boone wrote to Dan Gemienhart about his book The Honest Truth, in which the main character is a boy dealing with cancer and she connected that to how her aunt struggled with cancer five years ago. Boyer wrote to Erin Hunter, the author of The Warriors series and explained that she talks to her mom, her sister, and even her eye doctor about the characters in the books. She wrote that reading about the different perspectives of the characters in the books has helped her be aware of the different perspectives of the people around her. Meanwhile, Latin also had a winner in Level 3. Ninth grader John Parker won third place with a letter to Mo Willems about his Elephant and Piggie books.
On Tuesday, teachers spoke with Mr. Hagerty’s history classes about their experiences and memories surrounding September 11 in preparation for the eleventh grade field trip Thursday to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Alpert, Ms. Raskin, Ms. Nevola, Ms. Breitman, Mr. Porcelli, Mr. Yonker, Mr. Torrence, Ms. Smith, and Ms. Collins shared personal memories from the day. Students had insightful questions about how the event impacted foreign policy and how the media covered the aftermath. In the past, Mr. Hagerty’s class has welcomed professors, military servicemen, and other people to add to their understanding of history through oral narrative.
At last week’s faculty meeting, several students, ranging in age from ninth through twelfth grade addressed teachers in a panel moderated by Ms. Grant. The event, the first of its kind, brought together a wide variety of students to share their experiences at Washington Latin, including the triumphs and challenges of being a student in the middle and upper school. Students reflected on school policies, issues of peer pressure, bullying, and ethnic identity. Students spoke with poise, sophistication, and honesty that was stunning, showcasing the impressive public speaking skills that our school prides itself on. Later in May, interested staff members will continue in an after school dialogue with the students and to begin to collaboratively brainstorm ways to continue to improve our school. This commitment on the part of teachers and students to work together to endlessly build our community through dialogue is central to our school’s values.
Friday juniors and seniors will host their annual prom at the Hill Center at 8 pm. The event, chaperoned by upper school teachers, features fancy clothes, limousines, music, dancing, and fine catering provided by Latin parent Tracy Stannard, owner of the Broad Branch Market. The event was organized by the student council, with chairmen Kennedi Cook and Nodiyah Satterwhite taking the lead. Council advisor Ms. Seid as always played an important role, planning the event with students and assisting her students in creating prom-posals in her classroom. This year students used various props to as their dates to come, creating signs, bringing balloons, rose petals, candles, music and videos to ask friends to join them at the prom. The winning prom-posal from senior DaQuon Brown to Erica Thompson earned two free tickets to the prom. After prom students head to Flight Trampoline Park for an overnight afterparty chaperoned by parents.
Eighth graders will be visiting the Avalon Theater this Friday to see the movie Newsies. The movie, which focuses on a paperboy strike in the 1920s, touches on some of the key issues in the American turn of the century industrialization that students have just learned about in Ms. Coppola-Klein and Mr. Anderson’s history classes. The musical sets the conflict over workers’ rights and pay to music with songs and dances that focus on the employee struggle for fair compensation. Students will be writing a paper about the historical accuracy of the movie’s depiction of big business, child labor, urbanization, unsafe working conditions, and union organizing.
