The Stage is Set

The school is ready, the faculty's ready, the students are ready, the kayaks and tennis courts and soccer field are ready -- in fifteen minutes we have Convocation, to open the 2007-2008 school year!

Go Greenies, start on the new adventure!

Spring Fiesta

The wonderful Parents' Council put on a festive luncheon for faculty and staff this Tuesday. We enjoyed the colorful decorations and the fabulous food. Thanks, parents! Enrique and Lupe (pictured here) were present, overlooking it all.

Student Artists

Several student paintings and photos created under the direction of art teacher Betty Weil were shown recently in the local "Artists of Tomorrow" show and are now hanging in Wetmore Hall. Here are a few, including an American flag treatment by one of our German students.

Summer Reading Bookfair

We're trying a new approach this year to summer reading. Based on a model used by other independent schools and shared with us by Woodberry Forest, here's how it works. Students will attend a book fair today in the Beaver Student Center to browse the books offered by sponsoring faculty. Each participating faculty member has chosen a favorite book for summer reading. Students will sign up with the teacher to read that book over the summer, and maybe share reactions through blogs or email. When school opens again in August we will have a series of social evenings during which a group of students will meet with the teacher to wrap up discussion of their book.

This year's choices include fiction and non-fiction, old and new titles, long and short, ranging from John Steinbeck's classic The Pearl to Michael Pollan's recent The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Here's a list of the available choices and their faculty sponsors:

The Omnivore's Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan (sponsor Kirk Brown)

The Pearl, John Steinbeck (Vance Brown)

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (Dan Chase)

In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship "Essex," Nathaniel Philbrick (Erich Cluxton)

Lady on the Hill (the story of the Cecil family and the Biltmore House), Howard E. Covington, Jr. (Scott Greene)

The Cruelest Miles, Guy and Leney Salisbury (Leigh Harris)

Angels and Demons, Dan Brown (Brandon Herder)

The Alchemist, Paolo Coehlo (Laura Hope-Gill)

Wolf Whistle, Lewis Nordan (Jane Hyde)

Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (Ryan John -- new faculty in English!)

Grievances, Mark Ethridge (Donna Kinney)

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole (Mary Landingham)

Hardball, Chris Matthews (Jackson Mabry)

A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson (Bryan Martin)

Art of War, Sun Tzu (Jeff Miles)

The Road, Cormac McCarthy (Mary Jane Morrison)

No Excuses, Kyle Maynard (Duncan Parham)

Six Hours One Friday, Max Lucado (Bruce Stender)

The Legend of Bagger Vance, Steven Pressfield (Denis Stokes)

The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (Lyn Tillett)

Shoeless Joe, W.P. Kinsella (Craig Tredenick)

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (James Uhler)

The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon (Betty Weil)

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald (Michael Zito -- new faculty in English also!)

A First Draw!

As you probably know, Matt Horwitz is our unofficial but undoubted campus chess champoin. Beating Matt is a goal of a lot of the guys, and one day recently, Marcus managed his first draw. Congratulations, Mmarcus!

Student Art

Student art is on display in the halls and lobbies of the school. Here are a few examples, snapped on the fly by St. Dunstan, as he hurried off to his post.

Christ School's Fine Arts Department inspires students each year to discover new talents and practice known interests, and the output is impressive, including drawings and paintings, etchings, pottery, weaving, and photography.

Look for some of the school's artists' work in this spring's Struan literary magazine. Results of the annual competition and publication date to be announced soon. Look for it here, as St. Dunstan keeps his eye out for interesting events.

The NEW New Oak

Last fall we planted a replacement to the old oak tree, under which generations had gathered to get on the bus for trips. St. Dunstan blogged about it but had to lose the first blog and its posts. We lost the first new tree as well, but it was recently replaced by a healthy young specimen. It stands on the site of the old oak. Christ School friends can continue to gather at the oak tree, hopefully for generations to come.