Octagon 2016-17 issue 7

Page 1

THE

OCTAGON

VOL. 40, NO. 7

||

Sacramento Country Day School

||

2636 Latham Drive, Sacramento

Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sacramento, CA Permit No. 1668 @scdsoctagon

||

May 2, 2017

ROAST OR TOAST? Seniors specify info to be left out of grad skits BY SAHEJ CLAIRE

T

hough Country Day has many traditions, perhaps the most memorable are its high-school graduation skits. Performed each year at graduation by high-school faculty, the personalized skits either “roast” or “toast” each graduating senior, with faculty actors recalling their students’ memorable events and funny quirks. The faculty begins preparing many weeks in advance by writing scripts and creating costumes and props. Seniors are given the option to receive a roast or toast prior to the faculty planning. However, this year, a few expressed concerns regarding the skits’ content. “A group of friends and I were talking about if we wanted a roast or toast (when it came up),” a senior girl said. “I don’t think we really expected the teachers to do something about (our worries).” The student explained that until she reached senior year, she hadn’t imagined how nervous she would feel about having a roast. For this reason, she has chosen to be toasted instead.

NEIL DIAMOND MANIA Biology teacher Kellie Whited and math teacher Patricia Jacobsen perform the roast of Caroline Mehta,‘15, at graduation. PHOTO BY TOM WROTEN

GRADUATION page 2 >>

Veteran biology, English teachers to dramatically change 2017-18 schedules BY JACK CHRISTIAN Not only is Country Day hiring three new faculty members next year, but two long-standing teachers - biology teacher Kellie Whited and English teacher Patricia Fels - are also changing their teaching duties. Whited will spend 20 percent of her time working in the lower school next year, while Fels will no longer teach sophomore English. For many years, Whited had worked with science classes in the lower school. “It was my own passion project,” Whited said. “I started helping out in the lower school by adding dissections, science

demos and lessons.” Whited also encouraged her highschool students to do activities with the lower school. But this year, Whited’s passion project turned into part of her job. “I am now the lower school’s science coordinator,” Whited said. “One day I was talking with (head of school Lee) Thomsen about how much I loved teaching in the lower school, and I asked him if it could be part of my contract as I was up for the challenge. “Thomsen immediately replied, ‘Great! Let’s make it happen.’” Whited said her first step is going to be meeting with the lower-school

SCHEDULES page 9 >>

High school adds two APs, civil rights history elective BY CHARDONNAY NEEDLER Two new APs and a new history elective open to seniors and juniors will join the ever-growing list of classes in 2017-18. Bob Ratcliff, current mid-

Proposed online grading system divides community

dle- and high-school band teacher, will teach the new “straight-up academic” AP Music Theory course; current AP Computer Science teacher Elissa Thomas will

BY MEHDI LACOMBE

prepare students for the sight-singing section using “solfège” (do-re-mi) or a number system. This, as well as ear-training, is to train students to hear intervals and sing them by ear. But according to Ratcliff, although there is definitely theory in the course, there is more of a focus on global music than there was in the

With the school’s addition of a uniform online database, Blackbaud, comes the opportunity for another somewhat controversial program: a fully online grade book. This grade book can be used by teachers, allowing them to give their students unrestricted access to their grades. While Blackbaud’s official website boasts its technology as beneficial, only some of the SCDS teachers are excited about its possibilities Chemistry teacher Victoria Conner said she thinks the new program will make students’ lives easier. “Students get all their grades returned to them anyway,” Conner said. “It would put it all in one place, which might be beneficial because students wouldn’t always be asking for grade checks.” This is because Blackbaud would automatically calculate students’ grades, even taking weighting into account. However, Conner said she will probably keep some things off of the shared grade book so she can work in extra credit and homework without worrying her students about possible

NEW CLASSES page 10 >>

ONLINE GRADING page 3 >>

PETTING ZOO Biology teacher Kellie Whited introduces one of her classroom rats, Fossey, whom the visiting second graders loved to pet. PHOTO BY SONJA HANSEN

teach the new AP Computer Science Principles class; and incoming history teacher Damany Fisher will offer The Long Civil Rights Movement elective. AP Music Theory In AP Music Theory (which fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement for the UCs and CSUs), students will be taught written theory, sight-singing,

ear-training (dictation) and keyboard (playing music) all skills typical of a first-year college theory class. Written theory includes composing as well as music history, Ratcliff said. For instance, he said, if students are learning fourpart choral harmony (perfected by Bach), they must also learn a little about Bach’s time period. Ratcliff said that he will


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Octagon 2016-17 issue 7 by The Octagon - Issuu