SEVEN HILLS
January 14, 2013
The Buzz
A Brief Word from Chris Garten After 18 months of research and deliberation, the Middle and Upper School faculties have adopted a new teaching schedule for the 2013-14 school year. The principal change is that classes will meet less often, for longer periods of time: two 80-minute and one 40-minute meetings per week instead of five 40-minute meetings. The schedule will also provide more “community time” when all teachers and students are free, which will greatly facilitate students’ access to teachers for one-on-one support. We anticipate that the new schedule will substantially reduce the frenzy of daily life; students will experience fewer transitions during the day and will have fewer homework assignments to prepare each night. More importantly, the longer class meetings will accommodate more discovery-based learning, extended research, and collaboration consistent with the principles enumerated in our Seven Hills Method. In the coming months, the division and department heads will orchestrate a series of in-service experiences for teachers to provide training on how to plan engaging lessons in these longer teaching periods. We will also devote the bulk of the summer curriculum grant resources to enable teachers to design units to take full advantage of this re-configuration of time. Many thanks to the scheduling committees, led by Bill Waskowitz and Nick Francis, who brought this to fruition. Chris Garten, Head of School
Books for Lunch presents award-winning alumna author Curtis Sittenfeld Feb. 7-8 Curtis Sittenfeld ’93 is the author of the bestselling novels American Wife, Prep, and The Man of My Dreams, which have been translated into 25 languages with more than 1.6 million copies in print. Prep was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of 2005 by The New York Times, and American Photo by Jerry Bauer Wife was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of 2008 by Time, People, and Entertainment Weekly; both were nominated for the UK’s Orange Prize. Curtis’s non-fiction has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly,
Salon, Slate, Glamour, and on public radio’s “This American Life.” A graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and recipient of a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, Curtis has interviewed Michelle Obama for Time, appeared as a guest on NPR’s “Fresh Air” and CBS’s “Early Show,” and been a strangely easy “Jeopardy!” answer. Lecture Luncheon & Book Signing Friday, February 8, 2013, 11:00 am Cintas Center at Xavier University Dinner with Curtis Sittenfeld Thursday, February 7, 2013, 6:30 pm At the home of Nancy & John Silverman For more information, please contact Books for Lunch 2013 Committee Chairs Christine Cho or Kerrin Antonsson at booksforlunch@7hills.org. Make your reservation online at seatyourself.biz/7hillsbanquet.
Lots of Stinger Spirit at Middle‘s Spirit Night! Article and photos are on page 5.
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Join us for Doherty’s 2nd Annual Unified for Unifat Pancake Breakfast & Student-Created Art Auction Sat., Feb. 2, 9-11 am. Details on page 3.