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.”
On Tuesday the English and Theatre Departments met in the Theatre room after school to work with American University theatre professor Caleen Jennings. She spoke to teachers about bringing theatricality into the classroom, using the body, vocal tones, collaborative performances, and choral readings to bring text alive. Teachers practiced acting out lines from several Shakespeare plays, using pantomime, tone, and humor to give meaning to words. Many of the teachers will be using these skills when they approach various dramatic and comedic texts in the second semester, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet. Jennings received American University’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award and is a faculty member of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Teaching Shakespeare Institute. She is also a playwright and a two-time Helen Hayes Award nominee.
Elayna Birch-Smith had an unofficial “Signing” in the College Counseling office with Delaware State University, staged by director of athletics Neil Berment. The senior basketball player is excited to join the Hornets next year. As an art student at Latin she has had her work exhibited at the Flying Fish coffeehouse in Mt. Pleasant. She also attended the Global Issues Network Conference at George Washington as a sophomore to learn about International Policy.
Senior Isaiah Smith is the 2017 winner of the DC Public Charter School Board’s Student Excellence award, recognizing his dedication, excellence, and care demonstrated in his work at Washington Latin. This is the inaugural year for the award, and Isaiah was selected from many students nominated across the District. When he spoke at the award ceremony on Monday, Smith noted that he appreciated Latin’s “Socratic seminar style of learning, where I can hear opinions and ideas from my classmates instead of just being talked at by a teacher.” He said it “has made it easier to learn and also has allowed me to develop my own ideas while still being able to listen to others. Overall, this environment has made high school an enjoyable experience.” You can see what led Latin to nominate Isaiah in this DCPCSB video.
It’s been an exciting fall for Smith, who just nabbed a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Rochester. Smith has been a star at Latin since his first year. After joining the school in his freshman year, and was selected to speak on The National School Choice Week panel with congressional leaders at the Cannon House Office building that year. Washington Latin has previously had four students gain scholarships to Bucknell, one to Pepperdine, two to Lafayette, and one to the University of Wisconsin through the Posse Scholarship. The program brings together a “posse” of students from specific cities to provide a support system for college students who are traveling far from home. You can find more information at www.possefoundation.org.
