CTT: sunny morning

Hello. All is well and I have enclosed a sample of pictures from this beautiful morning, of course as often happens in the Adirondacks we are due for a thunderstorm this afternoon.

I stopped in on both Junior and Senior Camp councils, and the variety of activities offered during periods one and two was staggering! (As an aside, we have a tradition of morning tent inspections done by children with the campers developing humorous qualitative rating scales. This morning the senior girls doing the inspecting had a rating system based upon male counselor facial hair ... 5 points for the highest - Eli's full beard - and 1 point for Tucker's sparse mustache.) The final pictures are of our climbing wall and the Junior Camp craft shop where they are making paper mache hats.

See you in a couple of weeks

CTT: juice and crackers

I arrived just at the end of juice and crackers - roughly 3:45 until 4:00 - to take some pictures at the start of fourth period activities: ultimate frisbee, boating safety, waterfront procedures, also during this time there was riding in both rings, climbing on the indoor wall, as well as several craft shop orientations.

To review from yesterday, every day I will post the emailed pictures on to my blog. You can access my blog by googling Camp Treetops (http://www.nct.org/) and looking in the upper left hand corner of the first screen, where it says: "Hock's Blog."

CTT: orientation

Hello.

I hope your travels home went smoothly. The next few days will combine regular Treetops activities (e.g. swim class) as well as necessary orientations to all program areas (e.g. farm and garden), with the goal being that all new campers feel like "old hands" by mid-week. A couple of important points that I wish to share: my photography skills are modest and the camera in my iPhone is equally as modest; as I send these pictures out to over 160 families it is unlikely that I can respond to even a fraction of your queries; in general the "daily" pictures are posted on my blog which you may access on our website (maybe you can have friends and extended family bookmark it); occasionally I will upload video onto the blog; working off an iPhone with stubby fingers yields typos please excuse them in advance, and finally, my intention is to share a slice of Treetops life with you - so you get a sense of the ebb and flow of camp - rather than sharing a photographic record of your child with you.

Camp is off to a great start!

CTT: high excitement

It was great to see so many of you as you dropped off your campers. We are all very excited about the summer, and certainly the energy and enthusiasm was palpable when the NYC bus pulled in. Thanks for sharing your children with the Treetops community; we will take good care of them.

CTT: less than two weeks

This morning I took a few hours off for a hike up Cascade; I have enclosed the summit view of the great range by way of reminding you of all the wonderful trips that will go out this summer. It is very busy on campus with many counselors taking a wilderness first aid course, a life guard re-certification program starting tomorrow and a riding clinic starting the day after. Less than two weeks until Treetops begins!

NCS: a few more end of term videos

In the final week of the term, each level was appreciated by their teachers - portions of which are seen here - and students were able to appreciate each other and staff. Here, you see Serena appreciating the kitchen staff.

NCS: more end of term photos

I hope all is well, and that your children have enjoyed the start of summer break. Enclosed are a few more random shots that I retrieved from my iPhone. I have also uploaded several short videos to the blog as well.
Hock


http://ncsandctt.blogspot.com/

NCS: more end of year videos

These videos show guitar, piano, percussion, and dance during the recital on June 5, 2009.

NCS: miscellany

Yesterday we finished the last faculty meetings and then planted the flower garden, which you should see in all its glory on the first day of school in September. The other pictures include: the top hikers receiving their mountain cakes, Larry's tech crew, some of the bugs, and some of the cloud people from James and the Giant Peach. (As always, just click on the image to enlarge the photograph.)

CTT: less than three weeks

Now that the NCS graduation is behind us, all of our attention is on Camp Treetops, and I can not even begin to describe how excited we are about the upcoming summer. See you on June 27th. I have attached a couple of photos to whet your appetite.

NCS: end of term

As promised, I will continue to post a variety of pictures and videos (see my blog) from those last days of the school year. The end of the year reports will be mailed in another week. The attached photos include: inside the Peach, taking down the set, and spectators at the drill team performance.

Video: snippets of the Drill Team

In the not too distant future the complete footage of the various drill teams will be available, until then enjoy my amateurish snippets.

NCS: post graduation

Hello; it was wonderful to see so many of you during the past few days. I trust your travels home went smoothly. For the next several days I will send along a collection of - somewhat random photographs - from the final days of the Spring term. At some point in the not too distant future (a week perhaps) we will launch our new website and there should be some links to video footage of all the graduation events.

Video: more appreciations

In these short video segments John C, John D, and Teresa S share their appreciations at Town Meeting.

Video: Town Meetings and appreciations

In this posting I have enclosed snippets of the appreciations and thank yous that Max, Emerson, and Sarah did this morning, I will try and post more in the coming days.

NCS: appreciations and thank yous

Our last Town Meeting is always a time for community appreciations, stories, and public thank yous. One of the best things about the North Country School community is the openness and willingness of the students to share their emotions. As always this was a very moving moment, and the first of many tears were shed. (There were more sharings done than I could fit on the whiteboard.) I will try to post as many video snippets of this Town Meeting as I can on my blog over the next several days.

Travel safely.

Hock

PS ... For those that can not make it to graduation, please know that we will videotape almost all the events.

NCS: 72 hours

Hello.

As Min Kyu told us at breakfast this morning, there are "about" 72 hours and 27 minutes left in the term. Your children are incredibly excited. Art work of all kinds - photos, paintings, drawings, ceramics, and weavings - are going up in the halls. This afternoon we have a dress rehearsal of James and the Giant Peach. Yesterday we filmed the equestrian drill team, in case the weather is poor on Friday (Just a precaution though, as the forecast calls for delightful conditions.) Packing for the summer vacation is in full swing at every house.

Finally, orange construction fences are starting to come down, grass is starting to poke through the straw on the south-side of the building, although as you can see from the enclosed pictures we are still under construction. Exciting to be sure, as students in Level I-II-III will get a chance to live in the new student residence when we finish construction in 2010. However, for the near term we will look a little less attractive than usual ... our apologies.

I know I speak for everyone when I say that we can't wait to see you

Video: senior's night

With all the demands on the seniors in this final week of the term, we took the evening off and went out for pizza and then some silliness and games at the local playground. Here are our 9th graders at play!

NCS: soon to be graduates

This evening I took the seniors out for pizza; mostly it was a time for them to be together and continue the emotional work of transitioning to their next school. Come Saturday, graduation will be a very exciting and sad time for them, and we do not want their full schedules this week to preclude them from doing the important social work they need to do. After our meal we spent a half-hour at Project Playground in Lake Placid, and they played tag one last time. (I will put a short video of our fun on my blog tomorrow.)

We are all looking forward to seeing you in a couple of days. The students are working so hard to finish projects, rehearse James and the Giant Peach, and practice their music as well as equestrian drills ... you will be very proud.