Eighth graders took part in a beat poetry competition in English class before break, using the books they had read on immigration as inspirations for their rhymes. Students just completed a unit on immigration in English class, with texts about young people who left Haiti, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Kosovo, to come to America, and one story about an American-born girl in Japanese internment. After completing lengthy DBQ essays about immigration, students took the chance lighten up by working in groups to show their musical flare and rhythmic skills as they retold the immigrant experiences and challenges in rhyme.
Before the vacation upper schoolers met for a holiday assembly that focused around the themes of peace and joy. Individual students reflected on the experiences in their daily lives, inside and outside of school, that invoke experiences of peace and joy. Ms. Nevola and the Honors Choir performed “Hush My Dear” by Stephen Caracciolo for the event, which was a wonderful way to celebrate the shared experiences of awe and warmth at our school. Whole school assemblies allow students in the middle school and upper school to reflect on major themes and ideas that cut across the curriculum, learn public speaking and active listening skills and honor one another for recent successes.
Students, teachers, and administrators gathered in the library with blankets and pillows and cozy chairs to read aloud A Christmas Carol. The annual reading was started last year by several seniors and Mr. Clausen and Mr. Yonker. Shared literacy experiences between teachers and students are common at Latin, with middle schoolers taking part in regular read-in with teachers, who sometimes dress up like characters from literature.
While the upper school course called Financial Literacy covers many practical aspects of living with a budget, from writing checks to investing to filling out tax returns, the teacher, Ms. Latham, knows there are many different ways to make a living. Zach Cutler, a professional guitarist in D.C., spoke to the class about making a living as a self-employed business owner. He also played some music. Cutler has performed with Melanie Fiona, Raheem DeVaughn, and Chuck Brown. He is a member of the band Eastern Standard Time, and is the music director for The Impressions.
Our College Counseling director, Ms. Latham, is at The Evergreen State College this weekend, as part of a three-day board meeting for Colleges That Change Lives. She is serving a two-year term on the Board of Directors for CTCL, an organization that was created several years after the book with the same name was published. The book spoke to the idea that the college search process should be driven by fit between the student and the college and should be student-centered, not simply guided by an institution’s name or reputation. It is a consortium of over 40 small colleges that the author, Loren Pope, felt were focused more the growth and development of the whole person and nurtured a love of life-long learning. Latham is also on the Academic Advisory Team for ZeeMee, a company that works to empower students to bring their stories to life on a free online platform for a visual résumé for colleges and potential employers. ZeeMee is now in over 13,000 high schools in 128 countries, but Latin was one of the very first to use ZeeMee’s platform.
