Before break the sophomores in Mr. Bhuva’s honors history class dressed as Enlightenment Thinkers for a dinner party. Students involved included Thea Davtyan, Owen Fox-Whelpton, Ellery Grimm, Damian Hanshew, Jane Leftwich, Duncan Matthews-Cox, Jonah Marks, Kimberly Montpelier, Xander Shoag, Oliver Spiva, Luke Tewalt, Sahara Trask, Alicia Trejo, MK Wilson, and Zoe Wolfel. Students portrayed different historical figures including French playwright Olympe de Gouges, English philosopher John Locke, English philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon, Dutch businessman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, and French philosopher Dennis Diderot in their attire and conversations and debated historical issues and philosophy.
Eighth graders in English class performed raps about immigration this week. For the second quarter, students have been reading various books about immigration. After constructing formal persuasive letters to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley about America’s policies on refugees, students loosened up with playful songs using vocabulary and quotes from their books. The student group that won the highest reviews from their peers will have a rap-off freestyle battle with their teachers. For the culminating quarter project, students will also complete a DBQ, using charts, photos, and political cartoons about refugees.
Just in time for the new year, Ms. Stephens’ seventh and eighth graders are displaying their masks and sculptures in the library. The 7th grade art students worked in small groups to study various folk art and visionary artists. For the project, the students had to collect materials in and around their house or find materials in the Art room to put together their sculpture. They could create a figure, something from nature, or a structure of some kind. They were also tasked to use one material that their artist used and were challenged to put together materials without using some kind of adhesive. Meanwhile the 8th grade masks along the back wall either express the true self of the student or help hide the true self/soul. The students learned about masks from around the world, identified their personality strengths and weaknesses, and looked at contemporary mask-masking artists. The masks are made from plaster strips that the students created with partners by plastering each other’s faces. Students exhibited include seventh graders Isabel Servaites, Kestus Carlson, Mansur Diallo, Amirah Taliaferro-Brunn, Henry Batkin, Ruthie Valentine, Sofia Atkinson, Samantha Martinez, Genet Tewalt, Jackson Lewis, Sam Regardie, and Mona Herst, and eighth graders Ife Akinsanya, Adriana Torero, Meliza Sorto, Jacob David-Fox, Luke Lowenfish, Young Pal Stallings, Evie Stettin, Ben Southworth, Juliette Warga, Caroline Watterson, Bruno Bakel, Caly Cage, Ben Long, Miles Pulford, and Nina Gomez.
Seventh and eighth graders donned their finest clothes for a Hollywood-themed dance. The event last Friday was one of the two school dances a year for the Middle School. With the help of seventh grade English teacher Mr. Green who helmed the DJ booth as DJ Green Bean, and Mr. Callum, who ruled the microphone as MC Callum, students were kept busy and moving and grooving. Winners of the Best Dressed award competition (who walked away with Oscar statuettes) included seventh graders Kayleigh Vaughn, Ethan Williams, and Genaba Diallo. Eighth grade winners included Lana Coulon, Myles Washington, and Dainius Antoine.
Junior Maya Woods-Arthur was chosen as the first high school intern ever to work at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Woods-Arthur has paid particular attention to global civil rights issues during her time at Washington Latin. She visited Morocco last spring with the Arabic teachers, takes part in Model UN, and attended the Global Issues Network conference last March. She also attended a symposium last fall called “Police and Community: Building a Bridge of Trust.”
