Seven Hills Buzz - Oct. 3, 2012

SEVEN HILLS

October 3, 2012

The Buzz

A Brief Word from Chris Garten

Homecoming 2012!

Some early observations about the iPad Program:

It was a perfect early fall evening as Seven Hills families came together for Homecoming 2012, which included divisional pep rallies; sports clinics for grades 1–8; an All-School Family Picnic; spirited music from Pepsplosion; fall sports reports from varsity captains; the traditional bonfire; Stinger tennis, volleyball, and soccer, plus a Cross Country Invitational; and Upper’s Homecoming Dance.

1. Students who traditionally struggle with organization benefit immeasurably from consolidating scheduling, tracking and submitting assignments, and note taking all in one place.

2. Students have taken advantage, far more quickly than we could have anticipated, of the potential of study skills “apps.” Each day they discover new tools and share them freely with their teachers and with each other.

3. Instant quizzing software enables teachers to test students’ comprehension halfway through a lesson and adjust accordingly.

Congratulations, National Merit 2013 semifinalists!

4. Immediate access to electronic databases and archives provides a much richer context for discussions of literature, science, history and social studies.

5. Communication tools like Face Time, while occasionally a social distraction, have enabled students to collaborate on projects beyond the boundaries of the classroom.

Varsity golf captains Alex Smithers and Pauley Gosiger. More Homecoming images on page 3.

6. The ease of recording and sending sound files has become a powerful tool for language teachers.

Inside this Buzz

7. Students are, in the main, taking responsible care of their machines.

Creating Conversations Series Upper School News

Middle School News

In other words, from my point of view, so far, so good!

Chris Garten, Head of School

Congratulations to Seven Hills’ semifinalists in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program: (front) Kyle Patel, Priyanka Parameswaran, Katherine King, Chris Baggott; (back) Nicholas Au-Yeung, Katie Shen, Leah Yuan, Claire Romaine, and Peter Todorov.

12-foot elephant sculptures at Zoo!

Lotspeich News Doherty News

Sharing Yellowstone with Grade 1

All-School Open House for prospective and current families is Sunday, Oct. 28. Info page 2.

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creATING PRESENTS

Save the date: All-School Open House is Oct. 28 The All-School Open House for prospective and current families will be held on Sunday, October 28, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. Current Seven Hills families who are curious about what lies ahead, for instance in Middle or Upper School, can tour the campus and experience our classrooms firsthand. Meet students, teachers and coaches and speak to the division heads and our Head of School. Bring a friend! If you are interested in attending the Open House or want to volunteer to help, please RSVP or sign up, respectively, by calling the Admissions Office at 513-728-2400.

cONVerSATIONS

THE SEVEN HILLS SCHOOL SpEakEr SErIES We invite you, your family and friends

to join us for one or more of these fascinating sessions.

For more information about the free-of-charge series, and to register for the events, please call 513.728.2363 or visit www.7hills.org/CreatingConversations.

Oct. 25, 2012 7:00 p.m.

Belated “Great jobs!”

Smart Parenting, Smarter KidS David Walsh, Ph.D. Nationally recognized authority on children, teens, parenting, family life, and the impact of technology on children’s health and development; and best-selling author of nine books, including Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen and No: Why Kids—of All Ages—Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say it.

NOv. 15, 2012 4:00 p.m. Brain Development in ChilDren: a Closer look Dr. Lisa Kuan, Cincinnati area pediatrician.

JAN. 25, 2013 8:45 A.m. Ready, Set, GO! What dOeS it Mean tO be Ready fOR SchOOl? Expert panel of Seven Hills School Childhood Counselors and Educators.

FEB. 28, 2013 7:00 p.m.

Setting Children Up for SUCCeSS Ann Anzalone, nationally recognized consultant on learning styles, educational plans and academic performance.

Ajay Gupta, Hannah Levin, Natalie Choo, Head of School Chris Garten, Henry Head, John Larkin.

ApR. 18, 2013 4:00 p.m. Building Blocks: language & literacy for life

Congratulations to the student speakers at our traditional start-of-school assembly!

Students who spoke on the School Value of Striving for Excellence, “which can be seen in every aspect of Seven Hills life,” were seniors Henry Head and John Larkin, eighth grader Natalie Choo, Doherty fifth grader Ajay Gupta, and Lotspeich fifth grader Hannah Levin.

Expert panel including Speech & Language Therapist, Nancy Fluharty; and Seven Hills School Early Childhood Counselors and Educators.

For more information or to reserve your spot, visit www.7hills.org/CreatingConversations or call

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The Seven Hills School Speaker Series

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To register for SMART PARENTING, SMARTER KIDS on Oct. 25, click http://www.7hills.org/creatingconversations.

Homecoming 2012!

Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/7hillsschool/ for many more images

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A look at what’s happening at Upper School

See page 5 for Middle School, page 7 for Lotspeich & page 9 for Doherty Congratulations to senior Bethany Buck, who competed in the final championship round in both of her events at the U.S. Figure Skating’s Solo Ice Dance Championships at the National Championships Sept. 20-23 in Colorado Springs! In a close competition among the top skaters in the country, Bethany placed sixth in the Senior Level Free Dance event and seventh in the Gold Pattern Dance! To be ranked as Number 6 and 7 in the nation at the top level is a great accomplishment!

Ambitious and visionary entrepreneurs seniors Brian Collette and Anu Vora are members of a small group of Cincinnati high school students who are helping small businesses in Third World countries. The teens founded Charitable Innovations, Inc., the Cincinnati area’s first student-run micro-financing corporation.

Quoting Enquirer reporter Denise Smith-Amos, “Its mission is to stretch dollars raised by school and community fundraisers by first lending the money to small, needy entrepreneurs, often in developing countries. The loans are small—some as low as $50—but they’re bundled with other loans from around the world. As those loans are repaid, the proceeds go to the original, intended recipients—the charities. ...

Charitable Innovations finds its international borrowers through Kiva Microfunds, one of the world’s largest micro-financing nonprofits.” http://startsomegood.com/Venture/charitable_innovations Mu Alpha Theta/Math Club leaders juniors Gregory page 4

Sun (left) and Brian Hu welcomed 21 participants to the club’s first meeting during lunch on Sept. 12!

Participants enjoyed pondering and solving challenging math problems during their first meeting.

Katie Swinford, one of Upper’s teachers of Ancient and Medieval History, invited The Buzz to be on hand for some cool activities in her Ancient History 9 classes. “Students will be deciphering ancient Greek tablets that I have on loan from the University of Cincinnati Classics Department. Two days later, a colleague of mine, Emily Egan, from the same department will be in these history classes to show artifacts

Environmental Science teacher Linda Ford told us about the Environmental Science field trip to the Thomas More College Biological Station on the Ohio River. “The students learn about the water quality of the river by examining chemical, physical, and biological parameters. Part of the biological component is to electrofish and examine the variety of fish species caught.

Don’t worry! The fish are only temporarily stunned. Once examined, they are returned to the river. The final conclusion of the day: the water quality is quite good and provides a healthy habitat for many species, but invasives like the zebra mussel are very problematic.”

For the latest Upper School news, go to http://7hillscanvass.org/.

excavated from the ancient city of Troy and to talk to the students about the archaeology of Troy.”

A look at what’s happening at Middle School

Behold one of two magnificent 12-foot elephant sculptures created by Middle art teacher Elissa Donovan and her students for the decor and auction of Zoofari—Wild India on Sept. 14. What a great showcase for our talented students and faculty!

Zoofari is the Cincinnati Zoo’s annual black tie fundraiser.

Elissa said, “Our elephants were a big hit! They were auctioned off to benefit the Zoo for $1200 to Queen City Cookies in page 5 Northside.”

Science Department Head and Middle School science teacher Karen Glum described a fascinating experiement: “Seventh grade science students kicked off the year with a study of the then recently-landed Mars Curiosity Rover.

Students learned about the Engineering Design Process which they then used to design, build, and race their own rubber band-powered rovers. They also explored the challenges of communication between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the rover on Mars. They experienced the difficulty firsthand during an activity in which blindfolded students (the ‘Rover’) had to navigate a maze and pick up ‘rocks’ guided only by commands written ahead of time by the ‘rover driver.‘” The ever-popular candy Peeps played an important part in this seventh grade science experiment. Karen Glum said, “Seventh grade science students studied the challenges of the vacuum of space on page 6

space travel. They learned about vacuums and their effects by placing candy Peeps into micro vacuum chambers and observing the results. Students then had 10 minutes to design a twopiece spacesuit with helmet capable of protecting their Peep from the vacuum.

Five of the 42 spacesuits successfully protected a Peep, resulting in the admittance of those surviving Peeps into the Peeponaut Hall of Fame. Karen said, “We definitely had a good time with this one!”

Middle celebrates Peace Week The Middle School’s Peace Week events led up to the International Day of Peace on September 21—a day observed around the world. Teacher Karen Glum, who organized Middle’s Peace Week events with teacher Theresa Keller, described the week’s events: “Peace Corps volunteers teacher Elissa Donovan and Sam Kirschner spoke to the Middle School about their service in Botswana and Moldova. Assemblies held throughout the week included music and videos about tolerance and peace. In PE classes on Friday, all students participated in a Peace Day event called One Day One Goal in which people worldwide played soccer matches as a way to focus on peaceful interaction. As a follow-up to our observance of 9/11, and to lead into Peace Week, students wrote what they hoped for the future on slips of paper. These were linked together to form a chain that is now hanging in the Middle School Commons.”

Eighth graders enjoy Adventure Trek to Pisgah National Park in Blue Ridge Mountains, NC

A look at what’s happening at Lotspeich Fourth grade teacher Sara Snyder said, “The fourth grade had a great time at our annual bee field trip (pictured at right), an excellent extension to the science unit on bees. The fourth graders enjoyed getting firsthand experience with honeybees. We learned about bee communication, did some bee dances, extracted honey from a real hive, tasted local honey as well as honey from other parts of the U.S., and were able to see a live hive in action.

“At the end of the day, we were able to fill a full bottle of honey from all of the honey that we extracted. It was a great day full of fun and learning at Greenacres Farm in Indian Hill.”

Teacher Kristen Feeney told us about Second Grade Math Explorations: “Second graders explored concepts like temperature, base ten values, and number sentences using dominoes in small groups.

Such a hands-on approach allowed math to ‘come alive’ for students in a new and exciting way.”

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Two special visitors came to the Lotspeich assembly on Sept. 24—Will Tardio, one of the founders of Unified for UNIFAT, and Opiyo Denis, one of the mentors at UNIFAT, an elementary school in Uganda. Unified for UNIFAT is Seven Hills’ whole-school effort to help the students of UNIFAT, with each division sponsoring a child. Seven Hills has the only Lower School in the city that is part of U4U. The two guests told the students about their sponsored student, Gladys, who is part of a third grade class of 88 students. “Gladys would love to receive letters from you,” said Will. Will Tardio and Opiyo Dennis were also guest speakers at an assembly for Middle and Upper students.

Fifth graders had a great time hiking and exploring art teacher Jody Knoop’s farm, where they gathered the natural materials they will use for their colonial dye baths.

A special treat is visiting all the animals who live on the farm, including the “fifth grade sheep.”

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Teacher Karla Balskus said, “The fifth graders are also excited about our first dye baths (their first one reached a beautiful color with marigolds), for which they brought back plenty of walnuts, pokeberries, tinder and kindling from Ms. Knoop’s farm.”

A look at what’s happening at Doherty Mrs. Vanoy’s first graders read Wheel Away by Dayle Ann Dodds. They adapted the patterns of the story and scripted a presentation using words for sounds to go with the nouns of their choice.

Their acting skills were supreme!

Unit II walked up to the neighborhood firehouse on Sept. 12. Units I-II Coordinator Elisa MacKenzie said, “We presented the firemen with homemade cookies and thank you cards made by the students.

The firemen gave us a quick tour of the firetrucks but then they were called away to duty. We got to see firsthand just how fast the firemen move!”

On Science Day August 23, the fifth graders had a wonderful time exploring the scientific concepts of sound and light through various activities. Thanks to all the parent volunteers who helped with these activities. page 9

Unit III started the year with fun team building activities, designed to allow students to get to know one another while communicating and working as a team.

There was much laughter as students used cooperative working skills to move together on a wooden board.

Their favorite activity was tie-dying t-shirts to wear during special activities this school year.

After Unit II’s discussion about food chains/webs in ecology, the third graders dissected owl pellets. When finished dissecting the pellets the students matched the bones found inside the pellets to determine what the owl ate. Mrs. MacKenzie said, “They love going to the Science Lab. Great project!”

Social Studies Day at the start of the year gave fifth graders a preview of what they will be studying in social studies this year.

The students got to be part of an archeological dig. As items were unearthed, they had to determine what the items were and how they were used in colonial times.

They also played the colonial games of hoops and sticks and trap ball. They were enlisted in and drilled for the Continental Army, where they learned commands, how to march, and how carry a musket.

Third graders enjoyed a visitor from the Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District to teach them about worms and their role as decomposers in a food chain. They read a story filled with information about worms and then had an opportunity to handle and explore the worms in small groups.

Harolyn Sharp, currently a Professor of Communication at Florida State College, has worked with elementary and middle school students for over 30 years. Her forte is performing for students and training teachers in how to infuse the arts and performance into learning. Harolyn enjoyed one of her many return visits to Doherty Campus, working with Unit I in dramatizing poetry as a way to learn the elements of a narrative.

Unit III Coordinator and math teacher Vaishali Sarbhoy told us, “Doherty kicked off our 2012 Outdoor Program with the fourth graders’ biking trip. They had a wonderful time biking 27 miles on the Loveland Bike trail. They were chaperoned by some wonderful parents who were all enjoying the beautiful sunny day! It was a memorable trip from Loveland to Morrow and back, and it ended with a wonderful treat of Hawaiian shaved ice!

Sharing Yellowstone adventure, lessons with first graders Thanks to new endowment funds secured by The Critical Assets Campaign, Seven Hills has doubled its annual budget for professional teacher training. The benefits of this professional development to our teachers and their students are incalculable.

We are grateful to Doherty first grade teacher Anne Vanoy for sharing with us this essay about her professional development experience this summer and its impact in her classroom.

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“It is delightful sharing social studies and science topics with Seven Hills students, since they come to class having had so many experiences. Nothing is more valuable in teaching than to come to a subject with a similar background.

That is why the grant and workshop programs are so appreciated here.

“I had the great fortune to receive a grant this past summer from the Professional Growth and Development Fund. I took a program called Trails Through Yellowstone to strengthen our Doherty first grade unit on the National Parks of the United States. Yellowstone has been a dream wish of mine for a long time.

I have many exciting lessons with my classes about other National Parks that I have visited, but visiting the first National Park—one of the most exciting—is a dream come true for me.

“A Yellowstone visit entails learning about history, animals, geology, mountains, trees and plants, and lots and lots of water. The guide was so knowledgeable that every turn on the trail meant new treasures. The end of the first day entailed walking into a valley with a mama grizzly bear and two grown cubs staring at us. We carefully skirted the woods nearby and watched them from a farther vantage point.

“I had no idea that I would be sleeping each night inside a giant caldera left from a supervolcano. Wow! My favorite thermal feature is often ignored. Of course, Old Faithful brought mist to my eyes, but Grand Prismatic was incredible when viewed from the hillside above. Making mini geysers in class this year will bring back many lifetime memories.”