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:

 

 

Friends Select teachers, as usual, will be expanding their horizons and sharing their expertise this summer.  A few examples:

• Middle school director Terry Kessel has received a grant to travel to Honduras to explore curriculum with Heifer International, an international aid organization devoted to helping people obtain sustainable sources of food and income.

• Upper school art teacher Lynda Greenwade will study cartographic literacy at the University of Illinois in Chicago through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

• Upper school history teacher Jesse Freedman will join 80 other teachers from around the country this summer for a week-long National Endowment for the Humanities workshop entitled, “The Most Southern Place on Earth:  Music, History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta.”

• Lower school art teacher Dan Deslaurier will teach a week-long course at the University of the Arts on creating an artist study, a teaching method Deslaurier has refined at Friends Select that involves exploring an individual artist in depth. 

• Second grade teachers Carol Sime and Debby Rickards will present a workshop at the International Reading Association Convention on their methodology for creating five-act plays created and performed by students.

 

 

 

Hannah Cramer and Maya Zarate-Ramirez (pictured) took 2nd place at the Eighth Annual Build a House...Build a Dream contest sponsored by Delaware Valley Habitat for Humanity on April 4.  Classmates Christina Gummere, Fiona Tagliente and Gabby Hebden-Pearl made the second round of competition. More than 700 fifth graders across the Delaware Valley built their own three-dimensional, model "dream homes" and submitted them for judging. Contestants were asked to incorporate green technology into this year's designs. The Build a House..Build a Dream contest attempts to raise awareness of the need for affordable housing and funds for local Habitat homebuilding programs. The winning houses are on display at the front lobby of the school until April 30.

Seven Friends Select lower school students were the K-3 Open section winners in the 2009 Pennsylvania State Scholastic Championship, held on Saturday, March 7, in Carlisle, Pa. Third grader Jack Gontowski placed first, joined by Jacob Taranta, also a third grader, who won a “top finisher” medal and was named a third grade co-champion. They were joined by third grader Clara Pritchett, and first graders Torin Kuehnle, Jonah Taranta, Manas Narula, and A.J. Allen. 

In just its second year, the Friends Select chess program meets weekly before school, coached by chess instructor Ross Colby. The students will travel to Nashville, Tenn., to compete in the U.S. Chess Federation’s National Elementary School Tournament in April. 

For a group of seventh and eighth graders, mathematics is a sporting event. These math enthusiasts participate in Mathcounts, a national middle school math competition in which students solve difficult word problems in a series of rounds. On February 21, a Friends Select team competed in the citywide tournament at Temple University.  Eighth grader Helen Park won first place in the individual competition, earning a spot in the statewide contest in Harrisburg.  The team consisting of Peter McCurry, Ema Kelso, Helen Park, and Kevin Kim won third place.  David Youn, Isaac Singleton, Sebastian Powley and Afeerah Ahmad also competed.  Middle school math teacher Patrick Cassidy and volunteer Michael Freiman coached the students.  

Friends Select School hosted its first International Day on March 4. This year students immersed themselves in study of the Darfur crisis, examining it from political, ethical, and humanitarian perspectives. A highlight of the day was meeting one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” Ayuen G. Ajok (“AJ”), who fled his village in 1987 and eventually made his way to the United States after living in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. 
   Students also heard from Dr. Jerry Ehrlick, from Doctors without Borders, who spoke about his relief work in the region; Liz Guild, a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Niger; and Mary Anne Ciasullo, recently retired from Lutheran Children and Family Services, who spent her career working to resettle refugees. At the end of the day students broke into smaller groups in teacher-led workshops to process and discuss what they had learned. 

   The school held International Day in conjunction with Friends Day, traditionally a day each year when middle and upper school set aside their normal academic routine to focus on Quaker testimonies (simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship/service), and how they apply to the world today.  

Middle School Friends Day Slide Show 

A Friends Select School upper school computer science team earned third place at the Philadelphia Classic Programming Contest at University of Pennsylvania on February 21. The team, composed of juniors Haydn D. and Jenny S., and seniors Miles F. and Nick H-B, competed with school teams throughout the greater Delaware Valley and New York City to answer eight programming questions using the computer language Java. Using only one computer per team, 4-member teams were awarded points for correct responses and speed was used to break any ties.  

 

To see this year's programming questions, click here: http://dp.seas.upenn.edu/pclassic.html