Upper school English and religion teacher Mr. Day has been accepted into the CityBridge Design Studio, a series of workshops aimed to help educators design solutions to educational equity issues. Mr. Day will study diversity in honors courses and work to design programs focused on creating greater equity in educational opportunities. Mr. Day joined Washington Latin in 2010, and teaches several courses in the upper school, including English 10, Introduction to World Religions, and AP English Language and Composition.
Middle school reading specialist Ms. Lee-Bey earned a Virginia State Literacy Association Teacher Research Grant for $500 to introduce a word study unit for middle school reading classes. The grant encourages educators to use various tools for improving the quality of reading/language arts instruction and enhance student interest in recreational reading. Ms. Lee-Bey has long been focused on word study and language and reading acquisition. She also founded an organization called EtymologyRules to help people understand the power of words through workshops and lectures and learning platforms and worked as an adjunct professor designing and implementing developmental reading instruction for college students.
The Upper School Black Lives Matter club, advised by Mr. Torrence and led by senior Zoe Edelman and junior Nia Matthews-Cox, highlighted Black History this week with various activities devoted to African American leaders and writers. On Monday, the club honored Langston Hughes with a reading of his poem “Dreams” in the Daily Bulletin. On Tuesday, the club invited middle schoolers to join the club on Tuesday for a special presentation on activism. The club encouraged students to utilize social media and conversations with friends to highlight African American figures in politics, history, activism, art, and literature and to wear black on Friday as a symbol of solidarity. The middle school will have an assembly February 24th focused on Black History month, and students may submit photography, poetry, art, essays, or other artifacts to share at the assembly with Ms. Bradley.
Fifth grader Julian Skolnik’s mother, Erica Skolnik, shared some of her impressions of South Africa with Ms. Mujal’s fifth grade geography class on January 12. She and her family traveled there for four weeks in 2010. She shared photos from the trip and we learned about the varied wildlife, including baboons and penguins there. She shared the view of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain and showed us what a township looked like then. She also shared photos of Nelson Mandela’s house in Soweto and the apartheid museum there. The fifth grade geography class has been studying the continent of Africa, and is currently reading a book entitled A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, which is about Sudanese refugee Salva Dut’s life.
On Saturday 3 teams from Washington Latin competed at the Virtual Flint Hill Certamen tournament. Eighth graders Sophia Smith, Ben Blier, and Niamh O’Donovan came in 2nd place in the finals of the Intermediate Level, after finishing in first place for all three rounds. Eighth graders Lucia Claire, Michael Tichy, Max Aaron and Alice Pittard came in fifth place overall. Sixth graders Sadie Greenhalgh, Nora O’Donovan, Zane Wood, Orode Omatete, and Madelyn Zeller, also competed in the Novice Amateur. The team is advised by the middle school Latin teachers Ms. Rose and Ms. Sisk with additional assistance from Mr. Moore.
