May 28th, 2010
Calendar
June
Senior Project Presentations
Thurs., June 3rd, 1:05 - 3:15 pm
Cabell Center Theater, then various US classrooms
Senior Retreat
Fri.-Mon., June 4th - 7th
Final Exams
Mon.-Wed., June 7th - 9th
Senior Awards Assembly
Thurs., June 10th, 1:30 p.m.
Used Book Return
Thurs., June 10th 2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Fri., June 11th 2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Mon., June 14th 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Last Day of School
Friday, June 11th
End of Year Celebration and Assembly
1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
Graduation
Saturday, June 12, 7:00 p.m.
And just a reminder for all days of the week ~ please feel free to leave messages, day or night, about your child's attendance. Contact Molly Grove, Upper School Administrative Assistant, 503-297-1894, ext. 315. Thanks!
Upper School Transitions
We are rapidly coming to the end of the year. It is time to say goodbye to some wonderful people—our seniors, but also a few faculty who we will miss very much as well. We will see the departure of five terrific members of the US faculty/staff: Milledge Bennett, Bob Kindley, Mark Lawton, Rieko Mine, and George Thompson. For Mark, Milledge, and Rieko, three very talented teachers with eclectic gifts, they are moving in new directions, both locally and beyond our Oregon borders. Mark's energy and commitment to community service will be hard to replace. Milledge's special ability to connect with all ages and all backgrounds in gentle and supportive ways has been cherished by all of us. And, Rieko shared her love of the Japanese language across three divisions, working successfully with all age groups. We wish them all the best and look forward to staying in touch with them in the future. They will certainly be missed here.
Two long-standing faculty are retiring: Bob Kindley and George Thompson. Bob has been at Catlin since 1968. He has seen the school change in some profound ways and has been a cornerstone for both the math department and our Communicare program in the upper school. He is looking forward to spending more time with his wife, children, grandchild, and garden! We will miss you, Bob, and hope you will still come to campus and remain involved in our school community.
Finally, our counselor, George Thompson, is also retiring. As George puts it, ‘there is never a good time to leave a vocation that one has loved, but this is as easy a moment as any. I will miss my years at Catlin Gabel and plan to stay in touch with the good friends I have made here.’ We will hold George to this promise; it’s nice to know that he will still be around.
As we say goodbye to some wonderful teachers and colleagues, we also are welcoming new people here next year and that is always exciting. Someone who is not exactly new, but who we are nevertheless very excited about having here is Veronica Ledoux. Having come to Catlin as a long-term substitute, Veronica will be continuing in the science department fulltime adding to a remarkable department. She has a BS in Biochemistry and Chemistry from Mercyhurst College and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Northwestern University. Before coming to teach at Catlin Gabel she was a postdoctoral fellow at OHSU.
Lauren Shareshian and Jim Wysocki will both be joining the math department as new members next year. Lauren has taught at The Albuquerque Academy in New Mexico and has this year been teaching a statistics course at Catlin Gabel. Jim has taught for many years at The Chadwick School in Los Angeles. Both of these teachers impressed us in the search process as creative mathematicians and student-centered educators. Cindy Beals will be returning to the math department as well. Some of you may recall that Cindy has been spending this year in Turkey as a Fulbright Scholar. Cindy recently told me that she ‘loves living in Istanbul!’ but she is also excited about the thought of returning to Catlin Gabel.
Filling George Thompson’s shoes was never going to be easy, but the perfect candidate rose to the top—our very own Kate Grant. Kate knows the school well and has excellent training and experience in mental health counseling. Her appointment to this position was met with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and support.
Filling Kate’s shoes in the College Counseling Office was going to be just as challenging, but we have hired an exceptional successor in Blythe Butler. Blythe has worked in college counseling for over a decade, primarily at Lewis and Clark. She is no stranger to Catlin, having spent a brief period in our development department and more recently taking over for Kate Grant as college counselor last year when Kate was on leave. At that time we were all very impressed with the way she stepped into this position without missing a beat. She stood out even more during the interview process this spring. Not only does she know the school and bring a rich college experience to Catlin, but she has many gifts and talents to complement an already vibrant and outstanding office.
So it is with a bitter-sweet closing to the year. While we are sad to bid farewell to these faculty members who are dear, we are also excited by the prospect of working with these new colleagues in the future.
With kind regards,
Michael
What makes a perfect summer?
By George Thompson
When I was an adolescent, I went to boarding school and looked forward to summer at home with real yearning. When at last it came, I dove into it with great expectations. During one forgettable summer, however, I was to be deeply disappointed. My parents, preoccupied with concerns of their own that year, didn’t push me, and I didn’t push myself. As a result, I ended up sleeping in until eleven most mornings, performed minimal household tasks with little enthusiasm, stayed out too late with friends, didn’t get enough exercise, and in general, was bored and wasted my time. Were I later to have written a guide on how not to spend a summer, I couldn’t have done better than simply to have described the summer of my seventeenth year.
These many years later, I still regret the failure of that summer’s opportunities. I promised myself after that year that I would never let another such summer happen to me again! And I haven’t!
Summer needs to be a time of renewal and relaxation. For a young person, too much of the latter prevents getting enough of the former. To be renewed, one’s imagination has to be stimulated and the realm of experience needs to be expanded. This is true for all of us, but most especially, it is true for adolescents. Whether in a summer soccer or volleyball camp, or on a community service project in a foreign country, a gig helping out as an OMSI counselor in training or enrolling in a summer stock theatre program, an adolescent wants, and needs, an adventure. The change that comes over a young person who has felt the touch of real experience can be dramatic and gratifying.
Nothing pleases us more than to ask our returning kids how their summers were and be met with sparkling eyes and a breathless impatience to tell us as many of the thrilling details as they can think of in the minute or two they have to spare us. Let’s be sure we give them that chance!
Final Exam Schedule
This year the timing of finals exams will be determined by subject, rather than class period, to allow for all the sections of each class to take a test at the same time. Finals will be held on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday June 7th, 8th, and 9th according to the schedule below. Students are only required to be at school when they have a final exam, although we expect many students to be on campus during regular hours.
|
DAY/TIME
|
MONDAY
|
TUESDAY
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WEDNESDAY
|
|
8.00-10.00
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TUTORIAL PERIOD
ML ORALS
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MATH
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ENGLISH 9&10
ML ORALS
|
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10.30-12.30
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TUTORIAL PERIOD
ML FILM
PRESENTATIONS
ML ORALS
|
COMP SCI
ARTS
ML ORALS
|
ENLGISH 9&10
ML ORALS
|
|
1.15-3.15
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HISTORY 9
ML ORALS
|
ENGLISH 11
ML ORALS
|
SCIENCE
|
* The 9
th and 10
th grade English classes will meet as discrete sections over these days. This is the pattern they will follow:
TUESDAY: Art 1, Nichole 1, Brett 1,
WEDNESDAY 1ST BLOCK: Art 2, Nichole 2, Brett 2, Ginia 1
WEDNESDAY 2ND BLOCK: Art 3, Nichole 3, Brett 3, Ginia 2
Senior Parent Notes
Senior Class Trip Permission Form Due Wednesday, June 2
All senior parents should have received an electronic copy of the permission form for next week's senior class trip to Aubrey Lodge. The form is also available for download here. Please print and sign the form in the next few days and send it in with your student on Wednesday, June 2, a day set aside for seniors to meet with advisors to plan for project presentations.
The Senior Trip is the Class of 2010’s final community service project and enables the class to live and work together during their last week of school. This year, the Senior Trip is to the Mt. Hood National Forest to work on building fencing and thinning replanted areas to allow remaining trees to thrive, among other projects. They will be staying at Aubrey Lodge, a Boy Scout lodge near the White River on Mt Hood.
Please look carefully at the packing list included in the email and available for download here and help your senior pack belongings in a duffle bag. All gear will be carried from the parking lot to the lodge, likely over a muddy, and possibly snow-covered, 100 yard stretch of road and rolling suitcases will be difficult to maneuver.
Extra Graduation Tickets?
Many families still urgently looking for seats!
As you all know by now, graduation invitations are limited to six per graduating senior. However, many families are welcoming out-of-town guests for the occasion, and in many two-household families, there is only one spare ticket per household. If you are not planning on using all six seats on graduation night, please please please go to the ticket exchange website and get in touch with the families looking for tickets. Posts are listed by the date of creation. Thank you very much!
"Senior Graduation Memories" Video Order Form Available
If you wish to order a video of all the events surrounding graduation ceremony in June (preparation, the ceremony itself and the post-ceremony celebration) please pick up a purple order form in the US office and return it before June 7th. The DVD costs 35 dollars for the first copy, and 25 dollars for additional copies. The video is produced by a former Catlin parent and will be ready for pick up on Tuesday, July 20th. (Not June 20th as was listed last week!)
Honor Your Child’s Teacher
Show your gratitude for the amazing teachers who educate your child by making a gift to the school in their honor.
Make your gift
online or call 503-297-1894 ext. 306.
Remember, your contribution is 100% tax deductible.
Mercy Corps Workshops for High School Students
Action! Academy: International Aid & Development Camp: June 28-July 2 Find out
what it takes to work in the fields of international aid and development work with Mercy
Corps and Saturday Academy.
Video Storytelling Youth Workshop: July 12-16 Peak water; are we there yet? The
stories that water can tell... . Make a short video at this workshop.
Photojournalism: July 19-23 Explore photojournalism as a career and as a way of
seeing and documenting the world around you. Use your camera to create still images that
tell compelling stories.
Global Citizen Corps Youth Leadership Summit: July 26-30: Do you want to join an
international movement of youth leaders who are leading the fight for a better world? Join
the Global Citizen Corps Leadership program. Apply at
www.globalcitizencorps.org/leadership/apply!
Full course descriptions, fees and registration forms
http://www.actioncenter.org/portland
A while back, you should have received the Catlin Gabel Summer Programs catalog in the mail. We hope you have the time to look through the catalog and find courses that will fit your child's summer plans. As usual we are offering a wide variety of courses, some new, some old, that should capture the interests and activities of your child. In the event of a misplaced catalog, you can always click on www.catlin.edu/summer to find all the information you need or visit the Catlin Gabel webpage and click on the Summer Programs logo button at the bottom of the main page.
