NCS: Halloween

We had a fantastic evening yesterday!

The costumes included the traditional and ghoulish: Frankenstein, fairies, super heroes, and the Grim Reaper. The costumes also included imaginative literary characters out of the “hundred acre woods,” the “Wonka factory,” and Ian Fleming’s “James Bond” novels. However, there were individuals who came as an eclectic assortment of cows, cats and mice, smurfs, types of candy, as well as a box of oatmeal, Old Man Winter, aged NCS faculty, a gnome, and the Pope! (Tow of the enclosed pictures show the crowded foyer during the parade of costumes.)

Level V set up an amazingly scary spook house in Glass; while Level IV hosted the remainder of the school at the carnival in the quonset. (Another picture I have enclosed is a snippet of our games and evening activities which included: fortune telling, blackjack, card tricks, pie toss, bean bag throw, mini-putt, dart toss, and bobbing for apples.) Later in the evening all enjoyed the Halloween dance in the Dining Room, and for those too tired to dance, they sat and chatted while munching on their candy.

Hock

NCS: studio arts

An incredibly beautiful day, with more to follow; however the snow is melting fast. (In the 48 hours since the storm ended, students have cross country skied, built snow sculptures, snow shoed, and thrown dozens of snowballs.)

On a different note, Jessica Hoffmann Davis – grandparent of an NCS student – just sent me some wonderful books that she wrote when she was at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They came in yesterday, and I have as yet not even had the time to thank her. I am excited about delving into them, and for now I will share one snippet from Framing Education As Art: Whatever the shape of the rationale, the arts seem always to need some reason beyond their own processes and products to make them worthy of real time in the school day. Why must we argue for a place for activities that provide singular shape and expression
to our understandings as human beings? Shouldn’t the arts be the most revered of subjects simply because they connect us to our unique and various cultures as well as to the shared culture of humankind?

Fantastic! I believe NCS has always been a school that would answer that last question with a resounding affirmative!
Hock

NCS: first big storm

Hello.

We have had snow squalls the past two weeks, however last night we got the first major storm of the season. Ten inches of heavy wet snow fell last evening and we are expecting another 4 inches today! The excitement is high: Larry and Nick got their first tracks on the ski hill “booting” up this morning at 6:15 AM by headlamp, all the children are frantically searching for gloves and mittens, and we have outlined the NCS snowball policy. Of course, there is a double dose of adrenaline today, in that we are getting ready to celebrate Halloween tonight. (FYI ... All major celebrations happen on Wednesday during homenight.)

This afternoon – in between sorting dirty laundry and putting away clean clothes - children will make final adjustments to their costumes, continue the pumpkin carving that started last weekend, set up the carnival and spook house, and help Libby get the “playlist” ready for this evening’s dance. A NCS Halloween is costumes run on the rule of thumb, that it is about 10% material stuff and 90% imagination.

Finally, it is just five weeks until Thanksgiving and we are all getting excited to see you, please be sure that you talk to Sheila about your travel plans!
Hock

NCS: jug band

The enclosed picture is John Doan’s jug band class.  The class writes both music and lyrics – a silly chorus – which they performed in the hall for me is enclosed below.
                
            Road kill, oh road kill, is what we like to eat
            ‘Specially if it is seasoned for better than a week
            Possum or squirrel, there’s nothing better in the world
            As long as you get it off the street

The instruments being played are: dobro, dulcimer, mandolin, and bass.  The goal of our music program is to promote both exposure as well as mastery.  Our students hear a wide variety of music from opera to spirituals, bluegrass to jazz, and classic to folk music.  They may elect to play a variety of instruments or specialize in a particular area.  FYI ... we have a  6:1, student to piano ratio at NCS.  Our piano teacher Don Rand – who has been at school for 50 years – has 30 individual students.
Hock

NCS: board meeting

Much of today has been gusty with pounding rain. Since Friday
afternoon these 19 committed trustees have been working hard on behalf
of your children. The conversations have revolved around committee
goal setting, program oversight, operational budgeting, and a review
of our endowment management. Tomorrow is predicted to be
beautiful ... enjoy your weekend.

CTT: first snow

Hello. I hope all is well, and that you are already looking forward to next summer. The season has changed here, and winter will be upon us very soon. Today was the NCS chicken harvest and tomorrow starts our quarterly board meetings. Karen reports that camp enrollment for next year is progressing very well. Thanks again for sharing your camper with us last summer.
Hock

NCS: math

A beautiful day, however it is still quite chilly. (It was 18 degrees at the barn this morning for chores.) Small class size. Individualized; meeting students at their cognitive starting points and moving them forward. Instruction that is multi-sensory. The enclosed photograph is Colette's class doing some introductory algebra. Tomorrow's "picture of the day" will come from our Board of Trustees quarterly meeting. Enjoy your weekend.

Hock

NCS: chicken harvest

Sometimes my job has a surreal quality to it ... This morning I went from a breakfast phone call about the impact of the financial crisis, to grading geometry quizzes, on to plucking feathers at chicken harvest, to changing my clothes for an admissions visit, and on to a phone call with a capital campaign consultant. The enclosed photograph is of the students and staff receiving final instructions from Betsy before the chicken harvest began. Your children did an excellent job. We harvested 50 chickens and an additional 7 large turkeys for our freezer. The work was hard and the community pulled together cooperatively.  Our students continue to understand the many differences between small scale - family type - farms and the huge, monoculture, factory farming operations that stock our supermarkets.  Several days ago, noted author and professor of environmental journalism, Michael Pollan was interviewed on NPR. I have enclosed the link below, which speaks to many of the things that we do on the NCS farm. The snowing is melting and we are in for three or four glorious days!

storyId=95896389&ps=cprs">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95896389&ps=cprs

NCS: town meeting

Snow! Just a dusting; not enough for snowballs, but enough to get us all anticipating the winter fun to come.

In today's town meeting, Martha and the community council facilitated a discussion about the essential elements of leadership. Students talked articulately about: the ability to listen, the ability to stand up for what you believe in, the ability to compromise, the ability to respect minority views, and the ability to be pragmatic. However, what was most exciting about town meeting was to watch children of all ages, temperaments, and levels of English fluency stand up in front of adults and peers and speak their mind. In the picture - Jae Hyouk - one of our Korean ESL students communicates his viewpoints to the NCS community.

NCS: archaeology unit

As a prelude to their study of ancient civilizations, Level II is completing a unit on archaeological methods of inquiry. This is a hands on, multi-disciplinary unit. It has both significant concrete vocabulary and spelling demands, as well as sophisticated critical thinking skills which are called upon. Colette is giving directions to the class about the upcoming simulated excavation. (Throughout the unit the Level II teachers have been role-playing two characters - Matilda and Jeeves - who made some pertinent announcements today at lunch council.) Many of the materials used were developed by the Society for American Archaeology.

NCS: another 9th grade requirement

The weather is about to change seasons! Temperatures are dropping swiftly, the clouds are moving in, and despite a great run of unseasonable warm days, snow is forecasted even at the "lower elevations."

I have been stuck in my office all day, and so I will need to recycle a picture from last week.  All our 9th grader need to facilitate a mid-day town meeting. As most of you know, polls and surveys find that public speaking is the one thing that people fear most (aside from death). Not surprisingly, more than taking final exams, or getting in a stall to hoof pick an unruly horse, or hiking up Cascade, this is the graduation requirement that causes anxious moments for our seniors. Nevertheless, public speaking is an incredibly important life skill, and one that gets the 9th graders ready to speak to the assembled guests at graduation. Oh, and Kyle did a terrific job!

NCS: weaving

Hello. I hope you have had a great weekend and that you are enjoying the same spectacular weather that we have had. As you review a traditional school curriculum, one of its major drawbacks is that it is heavily weighted toward engaging the left hemisphere of the brain. This is the portion of the brain which caters to factual, sequential, analytic, and logical work. As Daniel Pink (A Whole New Mind) and others have mentioned such an unbalanced curriculum is a significant problem. At NCS, our substantial commitment to studio and performing arts, as well as our ability to integrate the arts within the core academic classes through our multi-disciplinary approach goes a long way toward addressing that imbalance. Along with the photograph I have enclosed a link to an article in the current issue of the New Yorker. Malcolm Gladwell's essay is about creativity and late bloomers, and it has many implications for educators.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_gladwell">

NCS: science class

The enclosed picture of the 7th grade science class, serves as your first reminder, that the best way to experience all aspects of the NCS program is to come to Thanksgiving!  Please bring your entire family and join us for this traditional feast where almost all the food – except for the cranberries – comes right from our farm.  

On a different note, while the weather yesterday was yuccky, today it is glorious day.  I am heading out to do a bit of rock climbing with your children ... Have a great weekend.    

Hock

The students and staff of
North Country School
cordially invite you to join them
for their Thanksgiving Celebration.

A program has been planned as follows:

Tuesday, November 25th
6:00 pm - Parent gathering at the Caribbean Cowboy
(RSVP to Sheila by November 17th)
 

Wednesday, November 26th

1:00 pm - Book Fair Opens
2:00 pm - Academic and Performing Arts Showcase
5:00 pm - Book Fair Closes
Families gather in houses for dinner
7:30 pm - Families depart

Thursday, November 27th
9:00 am - Book Fair Opens
Various Program Demonstrations
11:15 am - Students to houses to get dressed
12:15 pm - Thanksgiving Dinner
1:45 pm - State of the School Presentation
2:30 pm - All gather in Quonset for closing performance
Families depart with their children after performance

To complete table seating arrangements for dinner, it is necessary for us to know all the names of those planning
to attend.  Please let us know by November 19th.

 
 
 

NCS: communal work

Picking up where I left off yesterday morning ... Many hands make light work. This photograph is from yesterday afternoon’s all-school potato harvest. In 75 minutes of work we were able to harvest well over 5,000 pounds of potatoes. Potatoes which are now stored in our root cellar and will last us until next summer. (Pitchoff and Balanced Rocks are in the background of the photo; two of our favorite day hikes for out-time or weekends.)

Hock

PS ... Many of you probably read the lead article in last Sunday’s New York Times magazine by Michael Pollan.  The staff have discussed many of his ideas about food and agriculture as we pass around one of his recent book, Omnivore’s Dilemma.  You may use the link below to retrieve his essay.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?pagewanted=print

CTT: Hock hello

It is 7:05 AM and 25 degrees outside. Today is going to shape up to be another glorious day.  Here in the Adirondacks we have already had many hard frosts and even snow on the summits. It is hard to believe that summer is over! Thanks for sharing your campers with us, and as we put the garden to bed for the winter, know that we are already looking forward to next summer.

NCS: chores

It is 7:05 AM and 25 degrees outside. Today is going to shape up to be another glorious day. Here is a typical NCS scene, two students heading off to barn chores, which speaks volumes for what we value here. Of course, the individuality of each and every child is nurtured, but so too is the communal spirit. Children learn that sometimes the community comes first, that feeding the animals comes before your own breakfast, and that on big jobs many hands make light work. These are values and attitudes that are not easily quantified by a standardized test score, yet they have a transformative effect on students. Interestingly enough, thirty years from now, when these two boys come back as alumni in August with their own families for a Friends Weekend vacation, what they will want to do most is communal work. Thanks for sharing your children with us.

NCS: outdoor activities

Yesterday we celebrated the success of the sixth annual NCS crag-a-thon. The enclosed picture, captures the image of the students fully 25% of the school that went up to the prize table. The awards were given for best belayers, best cliff scrubbers, best photographers, best novices, honorable mentions, most persistent, the top climbers in each grade, as well as Sarah and Alex our overall crag masters. This outdoor event was illustrative of so many elements of our NCS culture: participation and progress is the goal, it is open to all levels and abilities, everyone can shine and be a superstar, it is cooperative and it is a social endeavor, you set your own goals, it is something you can do as a life-long hobby, and while many may get recognized the prizes are an afterthought, since it is all about the intrinsic rewards.  Finally, it is taught by true masters ... Kudos to Larry, Dave, Katie, Nick, and Mike.

PS ... Oh, and yes, I won the award for the over 55 category ... however I think I was the sole entrant!

NCS: math

Hello.  It was great to see so many visitors this past weekend; what spectacular weather we had!  In fact the good weather will continue on through much of the week.  Today we just finished the “award ceremony” for the crag-a-thon, and on Wednesday we will have the all school potato harvest.  (More on both those events later in the week.)  The enclosed picture is from our Level IV algebra class.  Enclosed below are links to two article from the New York Times, that our math staff have been talking about.
Hock


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/nyregion/08video.html


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/education/10math.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1223633480-5rrtzwHKUAJTJw5FnzRWFA&oref=slogin

NCS: level V graduation requirements

Hello.  Another fantastically beautiful day in the Adirondacks.  We just finished singing “Happy Birth Day” (NCS style) in the Dining Room.  

The picture shows a 9th grader – Sarah – fulfilling one of our experiential graduation requirements.  Of course, graduates need to have passed their courses and mastered the 3 Rs (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmatic ).  However, they also have to be able to head a table, run a lunch council meeting, learn to ride and groom a horse, ski down Whiteface, hike up Cascade, and this year, they will also be asked to bake bread for lunch.  Finally, all the graduates are expected to make some brief remarks at graduation.  Students leave us with a metaphoric “tool kit” full of cognitive, physical, social, and life skills.

Oh, and the homemade pizza was amazing, as was the homemade carrot cake that followed it!
Hock

NCS: visiting musicians

Another spectacularly beautiful day.  This afternoon will be part II of the NCS Crag-a-thon.  Meanwhile, Portland Taiko is in town to do a series of concerts at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts, and we have them today for workshops with your children.  This group – established in 1994 – is an award winning Asian-American drumming ensemble.  (Taiko is the Japanese word for drum.) The link below will take you to their website.   Hock

http://www.portlandtaiko.org/

NCS: creativity

The enclosed picture is from Noni's glasswork course. Inside the various studios, as well as in our academic classrooms, one of our primary goals is encouraging the creativity inherent in every child. In these days of standardized testing and "No Child Left Behind" policy mandates, individual creativity is too often given short shrift.

To access a 14 minute video of a speech I gave outlining the importance of creativity and teaching to the right-side of the brain, open iTunes Store and type in JBSA podcast in the search feature.

Hock

NCS: secondary school placement

We had a dusting of snow on the ground this morning and more up on the summits of the surrounding peaks.  The enclosed picture is the first lunch-time meeting for our seniors with admissions officers from secondary schools.  Nick Perry, our Dean of Students (visible in the picture), is working closely with 9th graders and their families as they begin the high school application process.  In the past several years our students have attended a wide assortment of schools.  A partial alphabetical listing of the boarding schools would include the following:  Andover, Buxton, Dublin, Emma Willard, Grier, Gould, Knox, Northfield Mount Hermon, Northwood, Masters, Millbrook, Proctor, Putney, Vermont, and the Wasatch Academy.

Hock

CTT: parental anxiety

At Treetops we know that having a child away at camp for 7 weeks causes a great deal of parental angst.  However, your child is safe, well cared for, happy, and most importantly growing and developing in a myriad of ways ... They are having a transformational experience that they will remember their entire life.  Enclosed below is an important article from the New York Times.
Hock

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/nyregion/26camp.html?scp=12&sq=&st=nyt

NCS: level III

Enclosed is a picture of Dave Steckler teaching his 7th grade science class. Dave is a former NCS teacher -- the discoverer of "Dave's Crag" -- who has returned to us with his wife Laurie after a three-year hiatus teaching in Maine.

Enclosed below is a link to an important article from the New York Times education series.

http://lessonplans.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/whats-behind-the-curve/?ref=opinion


Hock

NCS: town meeting

On Wednesday morning we have an all school Town Meeting, instead of our daily grade level meetings.  The discussion topics are far ranging from abstract and philosophic to concrete and pragmatic.  Some examples of questions to be discussed include: What are the values of our community? Why do people take things out of other people’s lockers?  What do we have to be thankful for, and who in the community do you want to thank?

Today’s discussion centered around the NCS emphasis on farm to fork, and as a prelude to the discussion the children watched a short video clip about Cuke Skywalker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVrIyEu6h_E