St. Luke’s School
377 North Wilton Road - New Canaan, CT - 06840
October, 2010
Dancing At Luke’s Caroline Hopkins Contributing Writer
Courtesy of Caroline Chadwick The semi-permanent CLABs are due to be torn down.
The Secret of School Spirit Naomi Dubissette Arts Editor
Each year, school spirit rises higher and higher as our community undergoes new additions and changes, making the school our home away from home. This year, the grand prize for change goes not to the refurbished science classrooms, nor the now-food welcoming student commons, nor does it go to the new headmaster’s House. The prize for change goes to the clabs, which are now in process of undergoing destruction. Built in 2006 as the birth child of Mr. Thieret’s architectural mind, the clabs were never intended to be permanent structures, but temporary science classrooms until the school was financially able to build a new science wing. In truth, Saint Luke’s has a temporary permit from the town of New Canaan that expires at the end of next year.
St. Luke’s latest project was a redesign of the science wing
In the words of Ms. Gabriele, “when the stock market and economy crashed, it was hard to fundraise building a new science wing. As we wait for the world, to recover, the fundraising climate will get better, and this will be our next project.” At Saint Luke’s, education is tailored to meet the needs of students. Thus, the clabs have served us well, not only providing space for a science class, but the foundation for three-dimensional learning. The nature of the clabs sustains not only meticulous physics experiments, but also any lab or research meeting AP standards. As many of us are familiar, Saint Luke’s classrooms have undergone overloading and chaotic scheduling because both middle school and upper school share rooms. But the possibility of a new a science wing is high and with the clabs gone, it will alleviate some of the parking madness our community has endured. Ms. Gabrielle also spills the secrets of the future including; “the art department in the main building, a dinning commons project with a fireplace, an accessible bathroom in the history wing, and an elevator in the main building.” In her words, “We are building global classrooms. The classroom is very different from what it used to be. We are looking at technology, the right tables, furniture, anything to facilitate collaboration, and thinking about what is next, and what is more conducive to how we teach.” If our founders were to see the school today, they would be proud of the great improvements, the enhanced experience of the students, and the projects that Saint Luke’s has undergone. The way we learn today, is different from the way students learned when Saint Luke’s was founded. This, in itself, is a great achievement. And as amazing as these changes are, the secret of our school spirit is not in the buildings or the beauty of our campus, but it is in the passion and heart of our community. Ms. Gabrielle, who has been here for 23 years, stated perfectly, “You can take St. Luke’s and put it in one room, and it would still be Saint Luke’s. It’s not the building, but the people, that makes the school.”
Up until a few weeks ago, I am embarrassed to admit I really had no idea about the St. Luke’s dance team. Sure, I knew that a few of my friends went to the multipurpose room to dance as their after school activity, but who knew they were actually good? The St. Luke’s student body (myself included) could not have been more impressed with the dance team’s awesome performance at this year’s homecoming pep rally. Jaws dropped all throughout the bleachers as our very own friends, classmates, and teachers spontaneously stormed down to the gym floor and proceeded to join in the dance team’s flawless performance of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”. As I watched the crowd of dancing teachers and students multiply before my very eyes, not one so much as missing a step of the dance sequence, I was quite literally shocked. How did everybody know about this? Who came up with this idea? And the most confusing of all: How on Earth do the teachers know how to dance? It wasn’t until later on that I discovered that this surprise multiplying dance
performance, or “flash mob” as I learned it was called, had actually been in the works for weeks. Hoping to start off the pep rally in an innovative way, rallying up SLS enthusiasm for the coming season, the dance team had the idea to create our very own flash mob, an idea that has recently been popping up throughout cities and colleges across the country. The concept involves a completely random accumulation of people joining into a synchronized dance and then dispersing once the song ends as if it were a normal occurrence. The dance team pulled it off nearly perfectly if I do say so myself. Lauren Pendo, an SLS junior and leading dancer on the team admits, “I was surprised how it stayed a secret seeing as we practiced every lunch for two weeks!” And that they did; once they came up with the idea, the dance team sent out emails informing a group of entirely unsuspected teachers and students of their plan, which proceeded to evolve from there. “It was awesome teaching all the teachers and select students the exact Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” choreography,” Says Caroline Chadwick, another leading junior on the dance team.
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Inside this issue...
The Social Network
Sufjan Stevens
St. Luke’s Crew