MAY 2020
@ FCDS UPDATES FROM FORSYTH COUNTRY DAY
A Note From Gardner HEAD OF SCHOOL Dear Furies, We’re living in a profoundly different world than the one we knew only months ago. If we’re not working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic (thank you to the many, many members of our Fury community who are), then we’re hunkered down at home, doing our part to flatten the curve.
In this Issue: Furies Mask the City Learning #TogetherApart Dr. James Crowe '79
Furies are helping the greater community in so many ways - look no further than the Mask the City campaign, in which an alumnus and a trustee and parent designed and are manufacturing masks for widespread community use. Talk about a pivot and #flexibleFuries - you can read their story in Furies Key to Mask the City Campaign . Although we’re #togetherapart instead of together on campus, Forsyth Country Day School is still here, still living out our mission as a community of learners dedicated to preparing our students for what’s ahead. Almost overnight, our teachers - with the help of our teaching and learning team and our technology department - were able to transition to a virtual learning model that not only provides the content, but the heart and soul of an FCDS education - that sense of connectedness and community that we all cherish. See some snapshots about our journey into virtual learning in Learning #TogetherApart . Finally, we’ll meet one Fury who’s working around the clock on a treatment for COVID-19 - Dr. James Crowe ’79. Check out Fury Immunologist Combats COVID-19 . Thank you for all you do, Dr. Crowe! We’re all going through a challenge right now that is unique in modern history. As I told our current families recently, we will endure. But knowing the Fury nation - and judging from the examples above, I know we can go beyond that. We can and are finding ways to thrive in adversity, and to show our children how to live that example. I know that this community can do it: we are creative, we are resourceful, and we are #FuryStrong. Take care and be well,
Gardner Barrier ’97
Furies Key to Mask the City Campaign Wear a mask. Love your neighbor. Protect yourself. Stop COVID-19. That’s the mission of Mask the City, a Winston-Salem communitywide effort to make and provide masks and promote wearing them and continuing social distancing through May 31 to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. At the heart of the initiative is FCDS alumnus Dr. Bill Satterwhite ’80, Chief Wellness Officer of Wake Forest Baptist Health, who designed the mask, and FCDS trustee and parent Stan Jewell, CEO and President of Renfro Corporation, which is producing the masks.
“We are so proud to be a part of a community where business and civic leaders work so collaboratively.”
Stan Jewell, CEO of Renfro FCDS Parent and Board Member
“When we first learned of the need for protective masks, we tried to think of the best way to use our assets to help,” Mr. Jewell said. With the demand for Renfro’s socks down, they had the manufacturing capacity to pivot towards making masks - but not just any masks. “We teamed up with the folks at Wake Forest Baptist Health on the development of a mask that has excellent protective properties, exceptional comfort, and it’s washable and reusable.” Renfo can produce one million Nightingale™ WS Protective Masks per week, and distribution began on April 24. The first 300,000 were reserved for the City of Winston-Salem, and Mask the City reports that many local businesses and non-profits have purchased the masks for their employees, families, and others in need. Masks can also be purchased for $2.50 at select Lowe’s Foods stores. “We are so proud to be a part of a community where business and civic leaders work so collaboratively,” Mr. Jewell said. “COVID-19 has forced us all to work differently, think creatively, and respond swiftly. Renfro is proud to play a part in helping protect our fellow citizens of Winston-Salem and beyond.” Some information in this article was sourced from maskthecity.com.
Learning #TogetherApart
Chelsea Eller (transitional 4s) is providing
different types of opportunities to extend student learning from their circle and is showcasing them all with everyone, which allows flexibility for parents to use what they have
FCDS’s mission to prepare our students for what’s ahead has never been more important. The flexibility, curiosity, and resourcefulness that our mission fosters has allowed both teachers and students to transition successfully to virtual learning. What follows are “screenshots” of exemplary teachers, lessons, and students who are thriving in this brave new virtual world.
materials and time for. “It’s absolute differentiation for families,” Preschool Director Harriet Jennings said.
In Isabel Wiest’s preschool classes, she uses short 10-or 15-minute lessons featuring interactive Google slides on topics like counting in Spanish. “I regularly use the slides for my videos,” she said. “I sing and dance while incorporating the target language.”
Kindergarten loves “Wonderful Work Together Wednesday”! Teachers Kendra Wolfe and Leslie Faraci have students sign up for slots to interact with their peers through virtual play. Activities have included Lego Challenges (building and sharing creations) and Creation Exploration, where students chose art media and created their masterpieces together. All the action is shared via Zoom in groups of no more than five. “It truly allows us to focus on the social aspect of kindergarten, while incorporating play and creativity,” Mrs. Wolfe said. “Our students have found great success and really enjoy socializing with their peers, whom they miss dearly.”
Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a perennial third-grade favorite, so
teachers Tina McSwain and Jenni Wright came up with a diary activity for the times in which we live: "Diary of my Weird Third Grade Spring". In it, students reflect on questions like, “What is something you’re looking forward to when this is over?”, “What is something you’ve learned in your time at home?”, as well as reflections on their moods or feelings. “We are blessed to have children who want to learn and parents who make that possible for them,” Mrs. McSwain said. “As we look for silver linings, I think that we both agree that we have had the opportunity to get to know this class like no other group of students we have ever had the pleasure of working with.”
Rebecca Craps’s fifth graders, who’ve been studying Human
Geography and how both ancient peoples and people today impact the earth, played Earth Day Bingo - 25 activities to get them thinking about our relationship with the environment (and take them outside). Activities included an indoor/outdoor nature scavenger hunt (items in nature vs. items indoors that came from nature), creating a model of the layers of earth using sand, making DIY binoculars (from those ever-elusive toilet paper rolls) and then using them for bird watching, leaf and other nature rubbings, spring collages (both photo and from found materials outdoors), and planting gardens. “I do want to give a special shoutout to Maddox Harrell and his little sister, Skylar,” Mrs. Craps said. “They did it together and were the only ones to do a full blackout of all 25 activities.” Totally impressive!
In Madeline Stambaugh’s art classes, creativity is blooming. “It’s a joy to see my students up to various challenges of creating using simple household items and the outdoors as their tools,” she said. “With all my classes, we have had some great discussions on how everything around us can be used for art and how objects get a new meaning when we use them together in a new setting.” Projects have included a Found Objects Color Wheel, Recyclable Robots, and a nature inspiration art challenge inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy.
In U.S. History, they’re
Carolyn Sutton ’s students have been on an Odyssey !
asking the hard questions
Students conferenced 1:1 with Mrs. Sutton to discuss how they
and thinking critically
were progressing on their Odyssey essays. With conferences
about dark periods in our
set up at seven-minute intervals, students had to carefully
history. Ed McBride and his
monitor their time and come to Mrs. Sutton’s Zoom Room
students used Zoom
when it was their turn. “Every single ninth grade student
Breakout Rooms to examine
came back for their conference on time as scheduled,” she
primary sources from the Stanford History Education Group on why the U.S.
reported. “I was SO proud, and we were able to have some really meaningful discussions about their papers.”
government put JapaneseAmericans in internment camps during World War II. Each student became the expert on one document and shared their ideas on internment in a Google doc.
These examples of what’s happening every day in our “classrooms” - even though they are temporarily our living rooms, bedrooms, or kitchens are just a few of the many virtual learning success stories our students are experiencing. Check out the late summer/early fall issue of the school magazine, Amidst the Trees, for more in-depth coverage of Learning #TogetherApart.
Fury Immunologist Combats COVID-19 Many Fury alumni and parents work on the medical front lines in the fight against the novel coronavirus. Dr. James Crowe ’79, a Professor of Pediatrics and of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology took a break from his work as head of the Crowe Lab at Vanderbilt University, where he and his team are engaged in finding a treatment for COVID-19, to discuss this crucial work. “My laboratory has developed advanced methods for isolating single immune cells from the blood that are reacting to a particular virus,” Dr. Crowe said. “We have used these techniques to make antibodies that will potentially prevent or treat coronavirus infection.” In order to do this, the team acquired blood samples from people who survived COVID-19 in December or January. “We are currently sorting through the many antibodies that we have isolated to identify the most promising ones for therapy,” Dr. Crowe said. “The next step will be to test these in animals to make sure
Dr. James Crowe '79
that the antibody treatments fully prevent or resolve the infection in model systems.” If that succeeds, they will begin to manufacture and prepare the treatment for clinical trials starting this summer. Before the coronavirus hit, Dr. Crowe and his team were already engaged in simulations to fight a pandemic as part of the Pandemic Prevention Platform. “This program is a major research funding effort from the Department of Defense. The idea was to provide large grants so that innovative research groups could develop technology platforms that would enable them to make antibodies within 60 days that could be used for humans.” Dr. Crowe’s team at Vanderbilt got a $28 million-dollar grant to develop technology platforms. “We have been testing this in simulated situations in the past, but in January they asked us to launch a real discovery effort to find antibodies for coronavirus, and that’s what we’ve done.” Although there is currently no treatment for the novel coronavirus, Dr. Crowe believes that one will be forthcoming. “Most experts
Thank you to all of our alumni and parents
think that everyone will be working and going to school to some
on the front lines in
extent in the fall. Treatment will probably be available by that
the fight against the
time,” he said. The treatment his lab is working on will likely not be available until the end of the year if they’re successful. Please check out the late summer/early fall issue of Amidst the Trees magazine for the full article on Dr. Crowe, his work, and his Fury experience.
novel coronavirus.
5501 Shallowford Road Lewisville, NC 27023
www.fcds.org