This week upper school students in several different grades took fun and educational field trips to have a day to recharge and collaborate before the final exam study period begins. Ninth graders visited SkyZone, a trampoline park in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Tenth graders went to an Escape Room and the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., and eleventh graders attended The Frederick Douglass Project at AME Church. The play consists of two short plays, An Eloquent Fugitive Slave Flees to Ireland by African-American writer and local theatre star Psalmayene 24, and Wild Notes by award-winning Irish playwright Deirdre Kinahan, giving audiences a dual perspective on Douglass’ experience in Ireland. This production is proud to be supported by The Irish Embassy, The DC Commission for Arts & Humanities, and the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives.
Last week juniors in Mr. Hagerty’s history class visited the memorial for Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This is the location where the “fourth” hijacked plane went down because passengers took action to prevent an even greater tragedy on September 11, 2001. To prepare for the field trip, students spoke with various teachers about their experiences and memories of September 11 to have a better understanding of the way the day impacted communities and history. Students visited the Park Service outside Learning Center in Shanksville, along with the visitor center, and met with military members to talk about their service.
Students in eighth grade English acted out scenes from Dreams From My Father, a memoir about Barack Obama’s youth. The scenes depicted events from his childhood that appear in the book, but students were challenged to write his internal monologue during these scenes, to get a better understanding of his ideas and feelings. Students have focused on narrative writing for the fourth quarter of eighth grade English, including poetry about the search for identity, and dramatic and comedic skits.
This year Washington Latin’s college counselors are teaching a course called Junior JumpStart once a week during the fourth quarter to ease the juniors into the college application process. Students will work on brainstorming essay topics, understanding the parts of an application and their importance, researching colleges, starting to fill in their Common Application, continuing to refine the drafts of their résumés they’ve created, and plan for their future.
This was a busy week for WLPCS sports, as teams continued into the championship and playoff rounds of competition. On Tuesday the tennis team was successful in the PCSAA tournament as the team’s singles student athletes Daud Gantt-Bey and Alicia Campbell both won their matches. On Wednesday, Gantt-Bey beat his competitor from Wilson High School 8-1, and moved on to the Quarter Finals. On Monday, the Track & Field team dominated several of the league championship in the PCSAA tevents. Several athletes took home first place including the boys’ 4X800 meter relay, freshman Zoe Edelman in the girls’ 1600 race, sophomore Luke Tewalt in the boys’ 1600 meter race, senior Micaiah Jones in the girls’ 800 meter race, and sophomore Oliver Spiva in the boys’ 800 meter race.
