Upper School News
Lark's parent book group
Parents schoolwide are encouraged to read Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World by Tony Wagner. In this book, education expert Tony Wagner explores how schools and parents can cultivate the next generation of creative thinkers and doers who will drive our economy.
Lark will lead a discussion on February 13 at 8:30 a.m. (stay tuned for location). Lark highly recommends this book, even if you are unable to attend the discussion.
Limited copies of the book are available in our bookstore in the lower level of the Barn. It is also readily available at Amazon.
Link to Tony Wagner TED talk
Alumnus Gus Van Sant '71 talks about his new movie, "Promised Land"
Alumnus and board member Eric Rosenfeld '83 featured in Oregonian article
Story about freshman Julien Leitner appears on MSN's national small business website
Middle School robotics teams take 1st and 2nd place at regionals, qualify for state
Congratulations to the RoboSNAILS for their 1st place win in a tough competition against 20 teams. The team members are 8th graders Robin Attey, Matt Maynard, Grace Wong, Liam Wynne, and Sage Yamamoto. They are coached by senior Tucker Gordon. The RoboSNAILS’ research project was designing a website and iOS app to help senior citizens prepare nutritious meals and build community.
Team Sigma came in 2nd with 8th grade members Adolfo Apolloni, Ian Hoyt, Ryan Selden, and 7th grader Roy Stracovsky. Team Sigma had an over-the-top research project with a working model of a walker that senses the user’s location helps guide them. Junior Elyssa Kiva is their coach for the second year in a row.
Our two rookie teams also competed at regionals. Starstruck won the rising star award for the new team with the most promise. They are 6th graders Sujala Chittor, Natalie Dodson, and Amber Merrill. Their research project featured a puppet show presentation of a device that changes light bulbs. Senior Martina Dimitrov was their coach.
Sophomore Rushdi Abualhaija coached team Delta with 6th graders Avi Gupta, Tyler Nguyen, Quinn Okabayashi, Kian Palmer, and Spencer Shoemaker. Their research project was a working model of an Internet-programmed medication dispenser.
The state competition is on January 20. Good luck to the RoboSNAILS and Team Sigma!
"Picasso in the Back Seat" photo gallery
Thanks go to Upper School math teacher Kenny Nguyen for these photos.
Click on any image to enlarge it, start the slide show, or download the photo.
Catlin Gabel News, Autumn 2012
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
NEWS FROM HONEY HOLLOW
The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust granted Catlin Gabel $200,000 for the Campaign for Arts and Minds. The funds will support instructional technology in the Creative Arts Center, including innovations such as energy-saving LED stage lighting. . . . The school completed a comprehensive self-study in preparation for an October visit from a volunteer team from the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools. Visiting team members, including school heads from Lakeside and University Prep in Seattle, Duke School in Durham, North Carolina, and Marin Country Day in Corte Madera, California, will write a report with recommendations for improvement that Catlin Gabel must implement for continued accreditation. . . . The Middle School organic garden is now known as the Tucker Garden, in honor of wood shop teacher Tom Tucker ’66. Tom contributed much to the garden’s utility and beauty, including sheds, gazebos, and artworks. . . . After the April announcement that Catlin Gabel was named a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School, the Oregon Department of Education announced the school’s 2nd place award for Oregon Sustainable Schools, as well as the Pillar Award for minimizing environmental impact.. . . US science teacher Veronica Ledoux spent three weeks with Teachers Across Borders South Africa, helping math and science teachers from rural schools update their skills. The project director praised her for her personableness, professionalism, and passion for her work. . . . MS Chinese teacher Li-Ling Cheng participated in a summer residential workshop for master teachers in Worcester, Massachusetts, sponsored by the Chinese Language Teachers Association.CATLIN GABEL IN THE NEWS
Steele spoke on a KATU-TV newscast about internet safety for children. . . The school’s Creative Arts Center, now under construction between the Dant House and Middle School, was featured in articles in the Oregonian and the Daily Journal of Commerce. . . . Julien Leitner ’15 was featured in the Oregonian for sitting in at Portland’s Pickathon with Abigail Washburn and her band. Julien’s Archimedes Alliance raises funds for charities and nonprofits, asking $2 from each person, from as many people as he can reach.OUR NOTEWORTHY STUDENTS
SPORTS AND ATHLETICS
Doug Heymann ’18 represented Oregon at the Western zone age-group swimming championships in Grand Junction, Colorado. . . . USA Synchronized Swimming named Elli Wiita ’15 to the 13–15 national team and duet team for 2012. She competed this summer in the Pan American Age Group Championships in Colombia, where she placed 1st in the figure competition and won gold medals in duet and team competitions. During the summer, she trained with Team USA at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and in New Canaan, Connecticut.
The Catlin Gabel Class of 2012
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
Talbot Andrews
University of Portland
Outdoor leadership award
The bigger picture: find out where our grads have gone to college in the past four years
Our Inspired Teachers: Bob Sauer
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
Bob Sauer, US science
Bachelor's in physics, Whitman College. At CGS since 2001.
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I didn’t set out to be a teacher. I couldn’t see my shy and retiring self standing up in front of a room full of students, and the thought of speaking for a full class period filled me with anxiety and dread. But after starting out in an engineering job in San Diego, my interest waned, and I missed the opportunity to work with young people, which I had done for years as swimming instructor, lifeguard, and summer camp counselor. I went back to school to get my teaching certificate and moved back to the Northwest, which I had quite missed while living in Southern California. I started teaching at Portland’s Cleveland High School and eventually became the diving coach for the entire Portland league. After yearlong teaching exchanges to Cyprus and to Poland and 17 years at Cleveland, I moved to Catlin Gabel.At Catlin Gabel I love the enthusiasm and interest of the students. I am continually amazed and impressed at their commitment and abilities—they’re studying at levels far above where I was working in high school, and pick up even the complex ideas and applications of calculus in advanced physics quickly. That inspires me to carry on even with four different classes to prepare each semester, and to stay actively involved in the myriad other fascinating things that occur at Catlin Gabel—international trips (to Turkey and Peru), the ski bus to Mt Hood, class trips, far-flung Winterim adventures, and as many outdoor program trips as I can talk my way on to. Those initial concerns that kept me from teaching from the outset? I am energized being in front of a classroom of involved students, liberally dispensing puns and other physics humor along with the scientific concepts to a receptive (albeit groaning) audience. And class periods are not long enough!
Our Inspired Teachers: Nichole Tassoni
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
Nichole Tassoni, US English
Bachelor's in English, Wesleyan University. Master's in English education, Columbia University Teachers College. At CGS since 2007.
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pal Kevin. By 8th grade our advanced math group had grown to eight, so we took a bus to Wilson High School every day for geometry. And on every standardized test I took from 1st grade through 12th, I scored higher on math than on reading comprehension.Our Inspired Teachers: Ron Sobel
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
Ron Sobel, US Spanish
Bachelor's in political science, San Jose State University. Master's in Spanish, Middlebury College. At CGS since 1977.
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and considered myself a staff member at 6. Or perhaps it was Thomas Edison Elementary School, located virtually in my backyard, where I would spend 12 months a year in the buildings or on the playground. It could have been my brother’s junior and senior high, places I dreamed about attending one day in order to bustle through the long halls and go to big football games on Friday night. I suspect my keen early interest in schools involved being around many people doing many things in an atmosphere that looked and felt like a beehive. Some years later I figured out that it was the buzzing of everyone involved intensely engaged in work and play that drew me to schools as a career. It did surprise my parents, though, when I announced in 8th grade that I wanted to be a Spanish teacher. And now I teach the language that I had grown up speaking and studying in a school that actually has a Beehive!
Our Inspired Teachers: Dave Whitson
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
Dave Whitson, US history
Bachelor's in history and comparative literature, master's in curriculum and instruction, University of Washington. At CGS since 2011.
My senior year of high school, we were required to teach a session of our English class. I really enjoyed it. I became a teacher. People like windy paths with trees and hills; that’s a flat, paved road.
Our Inspired Teachers: Nance Leonhardt
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
Nance Leonhardt, US art
Bachelor's in fine arts, radio, TV, and film, Evergreen State College. Master's in teaching, Seattle University. At CGS since 2007.
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I became a teacher because of my classmate Steve Parkey. I must have spent more than 75% of my young life with Steve, and the only thing I could say about him was that he wore a lot of brown.
Our Inspired Teachers: Brian Gant
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
Brian Gant, MS health and PE
Bachelor's in geography, Simon Fraser University. At CGS since 1984.
I am very fortunate, as every morning that I venture out the door I don’t see myself going to work, but instead pursuing my passion.
Our Inspired Teachers: Tom Tucker '66
From the Autumn 2012 Caller
Tom Tucker '66, US and MS woodshop
Bachelor’s in design, Marlboro College. At CGS since 1979.
What really informed my practice as a teacher was “Faculty Flip Day,” an event invented by then-head of school Schauff (Manvel Schauffler). Each teacher spent that.jpg)
day teaching in an entirely different grade level and discipline. I found myself in Bob Kindley’s Upper School math classes. The idea was not so much to take Bob’s place as it was to see what it was like to be in another teacher’s shoes. I tried to add what little knowledge I had about higher math in the form of an explanation of Pythagoras’s Rule of the 18th (fret positions for stringed instruments) and the trigometric functions that might describe the angles of a podium I had recently built. Mostly what I did was experience Bob’s life as a US math teacher through his students and his room. And the same could be said for whoever replaced me in the shop. What I learned from the experience was simple, and for me, profound.
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