Professor Sarah Federman visited an 8th grade English class today to talk about conflict resolution. Federman, a professor at the University of Baltimore’s school of Public Policy, earned her PhD in conflict resolution at George Mason University. Federman is a scholar of World War II and other international conflicts. Her upcoming book The Last Train to Auschwitz: The French National Railways and the Journey to Accountability will be published in 2021. Dr. Federman spoke to students about the value of journaling and role playing to understand different sides of a conflict. Students will be starting a journaling project writing letters of conflict based on characters in the play Inherit the Wind. The story, which focuses on the Scopes Trial, contains legal, philosophical, and family conflicts. Students are also independently reading various choice books related to the quarterly theme of Justice, including All American Boys, The Crucible, The Boy Who Dared, Real Justice, A Police Mr. Big Sting Goes Wrong, and Chew on This. Throughout the unit students have worked on understanding different sides of a conflict through quote analysis and perspective writing.
Children’s book writer Emma Otheguy visited an eighth grade English class on Friday to share details about her recent mystery story Secrets of the Silver Lion, which is part of the Carmen Sandiego series. Eighth graders recently completed a mystery unit and wrote their own original mysteries for class. Students asked her questions about how she maps out a mystery, where she does research, and how long it takes to write a book. When the current eighth grade were fifth graders, Ms. Otheguy visited the school to read to them from her first book, a poetic bilingual biography called Marti’s Song of Freedom. She also visited the school the following year to read from her middle grades novel Silver Meadows Summer. Ms. Otheguy has published six books and is working on a new novel about the immigrant experience. Twenty-one years ago, she was Ms. Breitman’s seventh grade student!
Physics and AP Environmental Science teacher Mr. Torrence lead faculty in a book group discussion of the book The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. The book, written by The Atlantic writers Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt based on a previous essay they wrote considers whether parents and teachers are overprotective of this generation of students. The book considers whether the concepts of microaggressions, identity politics, and cancel culture have limited young people’s social, intellectual and emotional maturity. Conversations about grit, socio-emotional education, and values are central to teacher reading choices, and our school values the opportunity for teachers to engage in open conversations on these topics.
Ms. Smith hosted an outdoor soiree to discuss the election results with teachers at Latin. The outdoor, socially distanced masked porch conversation is part of an ongoing series of teacher discussions that happen afterschool. By joining our colleagues to discuss current events, history, or philosophy, teachers at Washington Latin share our intellectual curiosity and our value of open discussions. Teachers have hosted various topics for discussion with their colleagues, sharing news articles, writings by Aristotle and Plato, and editorials for discussion outside the classroom and the school day.
Washington Latin parents met with teachers for 10 minute discussions via Zoom on Wednesday. There will be more conferences next week on November 18th, and the following week on November 24th, so that every parent has the opportunity to speak to each and every one of their children’s teachers. Parent-teacher conferences at the end of the first quarter are a wonderful chance to connect with teachers and allow parents to understand the skills their children learned in the first quarter and set habits for the second quarter. It also allows us all to put faces with names and ask questions. We hope you will attend during the next two conferences if you weren’t able to this week.
Washington Latin Class of 2020 graduate John Parker graduated from Army basic training this week. He is a member of the Bravo Company, 4th Platoon. Several Washington Latin graduates have taken part in the military training to serve their country,, including the Coast Guard, army and Air Force after completing high school.
