Subject: SFS MS Tuesday Letter 3/5/2013
From: <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2013 01:30:00 -0500

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  MIDDLE SCHOOL TUESDAY LETTER
  
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FROM THE SCHOOL
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This Week's Query
How can you go out of your way to do something kind once in a while?

Notes from Sally
No assembly this week since we are not in school on Friday.  Also on 
the calendar, Monday March 18 will be a regular school day.  
Minimester runs Tuesday - Friday, March 19, 22.  Spring Break begins 
at the end of the day on Friday, and school resumes on Tuesday, April 
2nd.

8th grade parents:  This announcement went out on Friday from Upper 
School Science Chair Tom Donley:  "For those of you interested in 
understanding more about the change in the 9th grade Science course 
option for next year, please join me, Mamadou Gueye, the Upper School 
Academic Dean, and Eric Monheim, the Director of College Counseling 
at 7pm on Wednesday, 3/6 in the Robert Smith Meeting Room."  
Interested 7th grade parents are also welcome to attend.

Our Middle School Studio Art program will be showcased in the 
Rubenstein Gallery of the Kogod Arts Center this month.  The show 
will hang in the gallery from March 11th until April 17th and will 
include work by our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade art students.  (Since 5th 
graders will take studio art in the third trimester, their work will 
be part of the Medieval Festival following the Knighting Ceremony in 
May.)  We hope you can join us for a reception to celebrate the 
opening of the exhibit on Monday afternoon, March 11th from 5-7 PM in 
the gallery.

It is during the middle school years that a number of students create 
personal social media accounts. The more popular ones include 
Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Social media can be a great tool if 
used responsibly. A notable step that some students forget to take 
when creating social media accounts is adjusting the privacy settings 
for their account and accepting the default settings. For example, 
most of a user's profile in Google+ is visible to anyone on the web 
by default. 

 

While the topic of responsible social media is discussed in 5th and 
6th grade technology classes and in advisories, parents can help 
their children use social media responsibly by reminding them to 
check their social media privacy settings and make adjustments as 
needed.  Parents should also consider having discussions with their 
child about what is appropriate to post on the web.

This discussion should not be limited to social media that is 
accessible via laptops. Your child should also check the privacy 
settings for any apps they may have downloaded onto their tablets or 
smartphones. Popular smartphone apps with adjustable privacy settings 
include Foursquare and Instagram.

This is also a good time for a friendly Reminder about Sidwell Email 
Accounts.  SFS issued email accounts are primarily for academic 
purposes. An occasional non-school related email between peers or 
communication between a child and a parent is fine, but excessive 
non-academic emails are discouraged. In addition, students should 
refrain from mass emailing their classmates. Mass emails are only 
allowed in extreme cases with teacher permission. Students should 
keep in mind that all email communication via their SFS email account 
can be viewed by our school's Information Technology staff. If you 
have any questions or concerns about either of these topics, please 
feel free to contact Christine Stokes-Beverley.

This week we wish a fond farewell to Caroline Holtz, who is expecting 
her second child and moving to Ohio.  Feel free to drop Caroline a 
note or email to say goodbye, and we will be sure to send news of the 
baby!  We welcome Lisa Shaw, who will be covering the teaching duties 
for the rest of the year.

Congratulations to the "Orbit 8" team, DC state winners of the recent 
App Challenge!  Team members: Aiden Hurley, Brice Dickerson, Chilamo 
Taylor, Dylan Rosoff, Jeremy Tierney, Joe Schwabacher, Lance Duncan, 
Joey Doyle. Good job, 5th graders!

Mark your calendars for a great month of speakers in April!  We will 
welcome Anthony Wolf on April 10, Michael Thompson on April 16, and 
Carol Dweck on April 30 (with a community read of her book Mindset on 
April 17th.)  These are great opportunities - hope to see you often 
next month!

 

Especially for 7/8 students:  Hoops for Hunger - Thursday, March 7th 
6pm

There will be tons of food, music by Sidwell Friends' own Kaoru 
Yamazaki, tables sponsored by all sorts of SFS Clubs, and a 3-on-3 
basketball tournament. And it's all for a great cause--famine relief 
in the Sahel!

WHERE: Sidwell Friends School Athletic Center

WHEN: Thursday, March 7, 2013

TIME: 6-8PM

NO ENTRANCE FEE--IT'S FREE!

Come cheer your favorite 3-on-3 team of upper school students and 
teachers! Or just hang out with friends and enjoy the music and food. 
There will be lots of Sidwell Friends clubs selling pizza, baked 
goods, T-shirts, and more.

The Hoops night last year was a HUGE success, raising almost $2500 
for famine relief in the Horn of Africa. This year we are focused on 
the Sahel where the famine has been most severe.

Every dollar you donate really makes a difference, and the event 
should be a ton of fun so we hope you will join us!

     

                     

What service project did your son or daughter work on last week on 
the team or in the homeroom? What kinds of people were depending on 
their work? Now we're going to add to those contributions by working 
ALL together as a middle school: How can we help hungry families and 
kids in our area on an even bigger scale? The MS Winter Can Drive has 
begun. We want to collect a record number of canned goods by Monday 
3/18. Miss Nick and her Minimester will organize and deliver them 
during Minimester Week. Please help!

Instrumental Music Notes
5/6 String Ensemble Wednesday rehearsal period

7/8 Concert Band Wednesday rehearsal period

Mulan Pit Band Wednesday and Thursday 3:45-5:00

Mulan Sound Effects Thursday 3:45-5:00

5/6 Violin II, III Friday DEAR period

US Musical: The Secret Garden

Download US Synop_of_GARDEN.pdf
http://www.sidwell.edu/data/files/news/MSNewsletterFromtheSchoolNews/US_Synop_of_GARDEN.pdf

Download US Musical Poster.pdf
http://www.sidwell.edu/data/files/news/MSNewsletterFromtheSchoolNews/US_Musical_Poster1.pdf
Tickets are going fast for the US Musical: The Secret Garden! This show is 
suitable for all ages.

Reservations can be made by email or phone: [email-masked] or 
202-537-2400.

Adults: $8, non-SFS students: $4; SFS students: FREE

15 March 2013 at 8:00 pm

16 March 2013 at 8:00 pm

17 March 2013 at 2:30 pm

Sidwell Friends School Kogod Center for the Arts Mary Ellen Caplin 
Theater

3825 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20016

Seating is ASSIGNED

PA ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Community Service Corner
Annual Middle School Food Collection

See Sally Selby's letter for more information about the Middle School 
Food Drive benefitting DC area food banks.

Successful Middle School Service Day

Be sure to ask your kids about their experiences last Thursday. The 
faculty did an incredible job putting together a rich and meaningful 
day! Thanks to those who so generously contributed toiletry and 
personal care items which Team Sky packaged for A Wider Circle. Other 
community partners served were St Coletta's School, The Children's 
Inn at NIH, World Vision and Martha's Table.

Questions? Contact MS Community Service Co-Clerks, Sara Jane Harris 
[email-masked] or Felice Roggen at [email-masked]

OTHER NEWS
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Quaker Quotes
"When the Quakers were founded...one of their principles was and is 
equality of the sexes. So I never had any other idea...the principle 
was always there." Alice Paul, 1974

Early twentieth century leader of the woman suffrage movement, Alice 
Paul was born in 1885 in New Jersey, to a Quaker family that believed 
in gender equality, education for women, and working to improve 
society. After graduating at the top of her class at the age of 
sixteen, Paul attended Swarthmore College, a Quaker college founded 
by her grandfather.

Paul organized the largest parade that had ever occurred in 
Washington, D.C. On March 3, 1913, the day before President-elect 
Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, around eight thousand woman marched 
with banners and floats down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to 
the White House. Around half a million people watched the parade, 
although some were there to verbally harass the marchers. In addition 
to reducing the number of people who greeted Wilson when he arrived 
by train that day, the parade created a great deal of publicity for 
the women's movement. On March 17, Paul and other suffragists met 
with President Wilson about their cause but he said it was not yet 
time for an amendment to the Constitution.

Trying a new tactic, Paul and other women became the first to picket 
the White House. Starting in January 1917, they spent eighteen months 
picketing. Over 1,000 "Silent Sentinels" slowly marched, day and 
night, in front of the White House gates, displaying suffrage banners 
with messages such as, "Mr. President, how long must women wait for 
liberty?" They endured the verbal and physical attacks of spectators 
which only increased after the United States entered World War I and 
the women's signs became more accusatory, asking President Wilson how 
he could send American men to die in a war for democracy when he 
denied women the right to vote at home. Instead of protecting the 
women, the police began arresting them for obstructing traffic. As 
the women continued picketing, their jail sentences grew longer. Paul 
was sentenced to jail for seven months. In jail, she organized a 
hunger strike to protest their incarceration. Doctors threatened to 
send Paul to an insane asylum, but she continued to refuse to eat and 
so they force fed her. Newspapers printed stories about the women's 
treatment in jail, garnering public sympathy and support for the 
cause. By 1918, President Wilson publicly announced his support for 
suffrage. It took two more years for the Senate, House, and the 
required 36 states to approve the amendment.

After the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, Paul and the National 
Women's Party focused their attention on the Equal Rights Amendment. 
This amendment would guarantee women protection from discrimination. 
Paul spent the rest of her life advocating for this and other women's 
issues. She died in 1977.  National Women's History Museum website

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Sidwell Friends School
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