For the fourth time, our Senior Class spent a week studying tide pool zoology–where scientists believe life arose–on Hermit Island, Maine. We joined 100 students from seven other Waldorf schools (75 students from 5 more Waldorf schools were there the week before) from Sunday, September 20, to Friday, September 25. We rose at 5:45 a.m.–the tide waits for no one–to slip over knotted wrack and other algae to discover more than two dozen different marine organisms, including crabs, sea stars, anemones, mollusks, tunicates, and urchins. Students planned the menu for the week and cooked for each other–steak, crepes, stir fry, lobster. We studied mollusks, worms, arthropods, and echinoderms in group seminars, studied algae and animals in labs, wrote beach poetry and painted pictures of the beach, had communal campfires to discuss deep questions with other students, lay on our bellies to see bioluminescent plankton, heard Jonathan Skinner, poet at Bates College and founder of the journal Ecopoetics, and attended a rousing contradance.

Observing tide zones

Campfire.

Sea stars and urchins in the aquarium

GBWHS before the mud flats...

Elizabeth Orenstein in the microscope lab.

Please join us for a

Spaghetti Dinner

TO WELCOME OUR NEW FAMILIES

Friday, October 9, 2009

Come at 6:00 to mingle, and dinner served at 6:30

American Legion Post Hall, Rt. 7, Sheffield, MA (near the cannon)

$10 adults – $5 students 8th grade or younger – $30 family

Dear Families, Friends and Supporters,

It has been a terrific start to the new school year at the Great Barrington Waldorf High School.

On behalf of the school, the parent group would like to invite everyone to a delicious spaghetti dinner to welcome our new families into our community, and welcome back our returning families.

This is also our first fundraiser to help support the school and faculty in their wonderful work.

We hope to see you all!

Call (413) 528-8833 for more information or directions…

We are pleased to announce that Peter Podol will teach Spanish in our High School this year. Dr. Podol has a PhD in Romance Languages and a BA in Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in Spanish from Columbia University. He was a professor of Spanish at Lock Haven University, PA, until his recent retirement. He has also taught as an adjunct at Simon’s Rock College. He has an avocational but serious and life-long interest in opera and theater. Dr. Podol substituted in our program last year, where he was a cheerful and expert addition in Profe Gwen’s absence.

Peter Podol, Ph.D.

We conducted our sixth annual High School Orientation at Camp Hi-Rock from Sept. 9 to Sept. 11. The rain held off until the last day (when we completed the high ropes course, regardless). The students were incredibly well-behaved, responsible, and helpful to each other, to staff and to their teachers. The Hi-Rock staff was excellent, too–leading without psychologizing. They complimented the students’ great attitude–working collaboratively without carping, and no complaining in the rain on the high ropes.

We started with a hike to Sage’s Ravine on the MA/CT border on Wed. afternoon. After supper we had a bonfire, played some ice-breaker games, and talked about the High School. Thursday morning we did some group dynamic challenges at the Low Ropes course. After lunch, students worked to build and race barrel rafts, and then had free time at the waterfront until dinner. After dinner, we had another bonfire. Elizabeth Orenstein broke out the glow sticks–used to spell the school’s initials in one photo and Hi-Rock in another. Some of us stayed by the fire, some went back to cabins, and some went for a short night hike. Friday morning we completed High Ropes course challenges in the morning. After lunch, students, wet, walked to a lodge to play air hockey, ping-pong, or, as it turned out, watch part of “The Princess Bride.”

Parents, thanks for sending us your children. Students, thanks to all for a great trip to start the year. And thanks to Renni Gallagher and Robert Oelhaf or chaperoning.
–Stephen Keith Sagarin, Faculty Chair

Great Barrington Waldorf High School

At Sage's Ravine

Raft Race

The Spider's Web