Week in Review: Quiet, Sort Of

With the Middle Schoolers gone on their trips, things were a little quieter here. On Tuesday, our 10th graders came in to learn more about using databases to research for their Sophomore Projects, which will all be on a language or place of worship in the Sacramento area. We’re looking forward to seeing how they focus their topics.

On Wednesday the MOGAI Club presented during the High School Leadership Lunch. They gave some advice about how to be an ally to those in the LGBTQ+ community: “stay informed; ask questions; be supportive; stand up for LGBTQ+ rights in situations where you see them faltering; join the club to help and stay involved.” The club meets about twice a month, so if you’d like to join, listen for the announcements at morning meeting or talk to Austin, Isabelle, or Kayleigh.

Week in Review: Productive 7th Graders!

Our seventh graders have been working hard the past few weeks, and this week we’re getting to see the fruits of their labor. Mr. Kuipers & Ms. Lyon’s history classes did research in the library and then created their Middle East Cultural Fair Projects focusing on architecture, food, games, gardens and more. On Thursday, they set up all the projects in the quad and presented to their classmates.

Then they researched in the library last week and this week to gather information for their Biomes websites that they created for Ms Burns’ class. Here are some of them posing with their webpages:

But that’s not all. This week they’ve been working on their Call of the Wild projects for Ms. LaComb’s English class. This group is writing the script and making the props and costumes for their video that they will shoot while in Yosemite.

We ♥7^th grade!

Senior Moratorium

Wednesday was Senior Moratorium in the Matthews Library. Twelfth graders get several hours to work on their college applications with their college counselors and teachers here to help them fill them out and read their essays.

They took a break in the middle of their hard work to listen to Lee Thomsen who told them about a book called Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be by Frank Bruni. He said that who you are as a human being is more important than your GPA and that ultimately you’ll get out of college what you put into it. Happiness and success are not dependent upon what school you attend. He offered a list of colleges attended by the CEOs of the Top 10 Fortune 500 Companies as proof that success is not limited to people who attend the most prestigious schools. Then he shared his own daughter’s experience in choosing a college and what a good fit her choice was.

After the Moratorium, Mr. Wells cooked burgers for the seniors as well as the juniors and sophomores who had been taking the PSATs and the freshmen who had been playing Mr. Mangold’s version of Civilization.

October Book Club

Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Someone named Jack Thorne wrote the new Harry Potter book. There were no leftover brownies from Book Club. Which of these is true? Surprisingly, we had a few brownies leftover!

Despite being fueled by less sugar than usual, the conversations were quite lively. We started out discussing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Luca and Josh had already expressed their disdain for this installment last time, but while Anny disagreed, Ms Melinson was also not too enthusiastic about this one. Anny likes it because it helps fill in some questions she had from the original series such as what house Dumbledore was in. Ms Melinson thought it was nice to be immersed in that world again, but felt more at home watching the movies over the weekend. Our discussions about Harry Potter convinced us all that it’s time for another Harry Potter Book Club–perhaps after Fantastic Beasts comes out in theaters (release date November 18).

Ms Melinson recommended The Rosie Project She said this had all the makings of a romantic comedy, but with enough edge that she still enjoyed it. Quiet Power is a YA version of Susan Cain’s book, Quiet. It has less data but more practical use than the original book. Anny reread a lot of her favorite series books including Fablehaven, Once Upon a Marigold, and Charlie Bone. She also started reading Billy Collins’ new book of poetry, which she was delighted to find a signed edition of at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland.

We had a discussion about Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children since the movie has recently been released. People were pleasantly surprised that they enjoyed the movie, but of course we almost always like the book best! Anny and Alexa thought the movie was less scary/creepy than the book.

Ms Melinson mentioned that while she grew up listening to Bob Dylan and sees the poetry in his work, she wanted to know people’s views on having a popular artist win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Ms Fels mentioned a NY Times article whose author believed Dylan did not deserve the Nobel Prize. A discussion followed about what is poetry? are all songs poetry? Dr Bell talked about the long history of poetry as song. Most people were either thrilled that Dylan won the prize or didn’t have a preference one way or the other.

Stay tuned for more information about a future Harry Potter Book Club so we can further discuss our obsession!

Spirit Week in Review!

Spirit Week was packed into a very exciting four days this week. On Tuesday, students wore tie-dye. Wednesday was the Advisory Costume Contest, with a movie character theme. Ms. Melinson’s advisory chose Diary of a Wimpy Kid and was judged along with the other Advisory classes.

Thursday was twin day and students spent a rainy Friday wearing red and black and preparing for the pep rally. Friday also saw Mr. Wells and Mrs. Bauman lead Morning Meeting in singing “Blowin’ in the Wind” to honor recent Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan.

In the middle of all the Spirit Week events, 10th graders came in to learn more about their Sophomore Projects and 7th graders came in to do research for their Biomes Projects. They will be making websites to help teach their classmates more about biomes.

In addition to Spirit Week, it was also Teen Read Week! The Matthews Library mascot, Agamemnon, announced the winners of the Teen Read Week raffle, who all read books during September and October: In the High School Emily H won lunch for herself and three friends; Anny, Sonja, Emma B, Joe, Monique, Héloïse, and Abby won brownies on a random Tuesday, and Monique won the mystery prize. In the Middle School Lindsay won lunch for herself and three friends; Elizabeth, Catherine, Loryn, Rahul, Jada, Zola, Erin, and Anna W won brownies on a random Tuesday; and Catherine won the mystery prize. What a crazy week!

 

Week in Review: While The High Schoolers Are Away, The Middle Schoolers Will Play

This week was pretty quiet in Matthews Library with the High Schoolers away on their trips. While the coast was clear, Middle Schoolers were invited to have Cookies, Coloring, and Conversation time during Tuesday’s lunch hour. The 6th graders had fun learning all about the library resources available to them, even playing a game of “Friendly Feud” to learn how to evaluate websites. The faculty book club got into the fun, too, meeting to discuss The Rosie Project. Next week will be back to normal, but we had fun while it lasted.