Philadelphia television and print reporters converged on Friends Select in January to report on how the school marked the presidential inauguration. 

 

Two network crews and The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the fifth and sixth graders' "inaugural ball," held on January 16. The formal party was modeled on the dozens of balls held in Washington in January around the presidential inauguration.  The evening event  featured music, dancing and refreshments in a specially-decorated “ballroom.”  The ball was the culmination of an extended "teachable moment” that began with the caucus/primary season, and lasted until January 2009. 

 

Yet another news crew arrived on inauguration day itself to cover how students experienced the historic transition. Middle and upper school students and their teachers watched the ceremony on a large screen in the auditorium, while lower school students viewed video monitors which were set up around the school.

 

 

View Channel 6 news report here.

 

Seventh and eighth graders fanned out throughout the school to share brief readings of their favorite poems on Thursday, April 30.  "Poem in Your Pocket Day" was sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.  The students, all from teacher Dianna Newton's class, were asked to select two poems -- one for older students and another for lower school students.  They received explicit instructions, as follows:

Fifth graders Hannah Cramer and Maya Zarate-Ramirez won second place in the Habitat for Humanity Build a House...Build a Dream contest.  More than 700 fifth graders from across the region built their own three-dimensional model “dream homes."  Some of the winners were interviewed on April 22 for "The 10 Show" on the local NBC affiliate.