Junior Matt Beard ’19 recently visited with K-1 students to teach them all about lobstering. The kids had lots of questions: How do you make sure the lobsters don’t get out of the top of the trap? How do you haul out the trap?What else do you catch in the trap? What do you use for bait?
Matt lobsters over the summer—he has his own boat and 80 traps.
After winning the state Science Olympiad competition, 15 students traveled to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, for the national tournament. Students competed in 23 science and engineering events against schools from all 50 states. Waynflete’s team is coached by Carol Titterton and Wendy Curtis.
The Waynflete Writers’ Guild has been around for a number of years as a place for students to meet, have fun, and share their writings. This year’s guild has taken on the ambitious goal of publishing student written and visual work. We hope that you both enjoy and are moved by what has been put to page.
Katrina St. John’s homeroom collaborated with MITA (Maine Island Trail Association) and spent the school day collecting trash from the shoreline of Merritt Island located in the New Meadows. MITA has a handshake agreement with landowners up and down the coast of Maine that allows the public to use their property. In return, MITA acts as stewards, organizing cleanups and “island adopters” to watch over the properties. Katrina and her students scoured the coves and crevices along the shoreline to remove microplastics and large pieces of debris that had accumulated over the winter months.
Waynflete recently welcomed Mexican folk artists Efraín Fuentes and Silvia Gomez to campus. They spent the day demonstrating their craft and sharing their family story with students in Grades K-12, faculty, staff, and community members. It was a great opportunity to observe this Oaxacan husband-and-wife team work the wood found in the Zapotec region of Oaxaca.
Hope McSherry ’21 was selected to perform in a staged reading of a new play, Callie Kimball’s Dreams of The Penny Gods, at the Maine Playwright’s Festival last week. The reading was directed by Daniel Burson.
Hope gave a sensitive, funny, and moving reading in the leading role of “Bug,” a teenage girl growing up in severe poverty in Biddeford, Maine. Her cast mates were all professional actors from the Portland area.
Hope is pictured here with the playwright Callie Kimball, a well-established local playwright whose work is produced around the country.
The Community Service Award is given to a junior or senior who completes over 50 hours of community service.
The citation reads as follows:
Caring participation in the community is a core value at Waynflete. We believe such engagement promotes social wellbeing and justice in the world while cultivating important connections and meaningful growth for those who get involved. Each year, the faculty confers recognition to Grade 11 and 12 students who have distinguished themselves as community servants. The distinction derives from a devotion to service, both in and outside of Waynflete, measured by dedication over time and a current level of involvement that exceeds school expectations.
Siding, taping, painting, flooring…
Seniors (pictured above):
Callie Banksmith
Claire Dubois
Sophie Good
Nick Hagler
Leeza Kopaeva
Shuhao Liu
Molly McNutt
Dorothea Pinchbeck
Charlotte Rhoads
Luna Soley
Sara Wasdahl
Genevieve Welch
Nicholas Wagg
Dana Hirschhorn ’18 was presented with an appointment certificate to the United States Naval Academy (USNA) at Upper School assembly this week. She will begin a four-year course of study at the Annapolis, Maryland-based institution in the fall. Dana was nominated by Senator Susan Collins, Senator Angus King, and Representative Chellie Pingree. The Naval Academy has an 8 percent acceptance rate.
Both of Waynflete’s ExMASS research groups—lunar and asteroid—have made it through to the national finals! The students will present online to a panel of scientist judges on Friday, May 4. Winning teams earn an all-expenses-paid trip to the NASA Ames Research Facility in Mountain View, California this summer.
Read an earlier post about the ExMASS project
Grade 7 visual art students recently learned about the textile weaving of the Gutierrez Family in Zapotec, Mexico. Students made two types of weavings. In one, cardboard looms were used to create a range of organic or geometric patterns with yarn. In the second, students made colorful paste papers which they then wove into layered patterns. In both weavings, students were encouraged to design and explore the rhythm and movement that occur when juxtaposing colors and patterns.
Have you ever walked by the third-floor classrooms and heard students practicing Chinese? Have you ever considered how hard it is to learn such a different language? Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in a different country, especially one very different from the United States?
“What is one step that schools can take to prevent bullying?” “Awareness.” This question and our corresponding answer set into action of chain of events last year in the championship game of the Maine State LifeSmarts Competition that were unfortunate and largely out of our control. Judges debated, rules were changed mid-game, and questions were added. We went on to lose the State Competition by one question to United Technology Center, a career and vocational school near Bangor that serves seven area high schools. Our dream of attending the National Competition in Pittsburgh was dashed.
A few weeks ago, 6-12 History teacher Hannah DeBlois led a civic engagement teach-in for middle school students. The theme of the event was how to get involved in your community and make a difference through individual action and initiative.
Here are a few of Hannah’s talking points:
In the spring, sixth graders learn about and study plants as their final unit of the year. This year, they decided to collaborate with students in the Lower School’s Early Childhood program on a series of projects. They hope to build connections with their EC friends by doing plant observation labs together as well as a joint field trip to the Children’s Garden at Fort Williams.
Their work will culminate with the creation of a podcast (questions by EC students and answers by sixth graders) that will be on display in the Sixth Grade Museum in June.
After winning the state event, Waynflete represented Maine at the national LifeSmarts competition in San Diego last week. Lydia Giguere, Nick Jenkins (captain), Leeza Kopaeva, Ben Lualdi, and Nick Wagg finished in an impressive 7th place.
LifeSmarts is a consumer challenge competition that prepares students to enter the real world as smart adult consumers. It is focused around five key topic areas: consumer rights and responsibilities, the environment, health and safety, personal finance, and technology.
Congratulations to Tabarak Al-Musawi, who placed third at the Lion’s Club state Speak Out competition!
Click here to read Tabarak’s speech
Middle and Upper School Latin teacher Phuc Tran weighs in on MPBN’s “Maine Calling!”
Listen to the Maine Calling segment
Watch Phuc’s TEDxDirigo talk: Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive
Top photo credit: http://bit.ly/2r0kfCf
