SEVEN HILLS The Buzz
A Brief Word from Chris Garten
March 7, 2011
Congratulations, Seven Hills winter athletes!
Seven Hills is blessed with a unique culture of affirmation where students, guided by the school’s values, are encouraged to treat each other with kindness and respect. That being said, we are certainly not immune to concerns about “bullying” and unkindness. So, over the last several weeks, students in Lower and Middle Schools have participated in a series of developmentally-appropriate, full-day retreats, conducted by Youth Frontiers. At the Courage Retreats, seventh and eight grade students learned to identify the social fears that impede them from acting on their best impulses and committed themselves to changing their behavior and to standing up for their classmates who are victimized. At the fifth grade Kindness Retreat, students worked in small groups with sophomore mentors to develop a list of behaviors that they want to ban from our community and enumerated actions they can take to be heroes for others.
Winter MVPs were Roderick McFarland, TJ Nelson, Miles Hill, Lauren Weems, Claire Duncan; Jack Tyndall, Alex Wilt, Libby Carter, Graeme Harten, Carly Harten.
A report on the varsity winter sports season, all award winners, and more photos start on page 10.
All 11 National Merit semifinalists qualify as finalists
All three days culminated in a very moving activity, where students wrote individual plans of action or apologies to someone to whom they had been unkind. In these extended retreats and in the hundreds of daily interactions all over this campus, our students dedicate themselves to living the school’s values. How cool is that? Chris Garten, Head of School
Save the date: Youth in Politics Seven Hills is presenting the community event, “Youth in Politics: Developing a Voice in Our Youth,” on Saturday, April 9, from 11:00 to 2:00 on the Hillsdale Campus. Sponsored by the Seven Hills Network of African American Parents (SNAAP), the event will include a student panel discussion and small group discussions with community leaders. For more information, phone 513-550-9692.
All of Seven Hills’ 11 semifinalists in the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Program have qualified as finalists. These 11 represent 16% of the senior class. This continues a tradition for Seven Hills of having top percentages of semifinalists in the senior class among area schools.
Seven Hills’ National Merit finalists are Chase Atherton, Julianne Bain, Gabriel Blanco, Justine Cefalu, Peppar Cyr, Elisse Hill, Victoria Huang, Sasha Lieberman, Nathan Markiewitz, Haleigh Monaco, and Mia Perlman. In addition, Elisse Hill qualified as a National Achievement finalist.
2011 Hauck Scholars in Math and Science
New Young Scholars Award Program Thanks to a generous gift to the school’s current endowment campaign, Seven Hills has introduced a new Young Scholars Award Program, which provides merit scholarships ranging from $2000 to $5000 annually to new students entering grades 1–4. The Young Scholars Award Program provides meritbased support for talented students with academic promise who would benefit from and contribute to the academic and social fabric of the school community. The awards are renewable through eighth grade, as long as students continue to fulfill their academic and social promise.
(Front) Samantha Eng, Daniel Grass, Andrei Savu, Abigail Clark; Jules Barettta, Benjamin Sorscher, Ian Grohsgal, and Izzy Arjmand. Seven Hills has awarded 2011 Frederick Hauck Scholarships in Math and Science to juniors Izzy Arjmand and Ian Grohsgal; freshman Benjamin Sorscher; eighth grader Jules Baretta; seventh graders Abigail Clark and Andrei Savu; sixth graders Samantha Eng and Daniel Grass.
Head of School Christopher Garten said, “We are deeply grateful for the generous support that has made it possible to offer these new scholarships in our elementary school. Last year we launched a similar program in our Middle and Upper Schools, which has brought to our community a host of new students whose talents and perspectives have enriched our community immeasurably. This new gift makes it possible for us to provide access to this exemplary school for some very deserving young people who might not otherwise be able to consider it.” To apply for the Young Scholars Award Program or for more information, contact Janet Hill, Director of Admissions, at 513-272-5386 or janet.hill@7hills.org.
Regional winners in PBI contest, now headed to finals in San Diego! Thane Maynard, Director of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, honored three Seven Hills juniors as regional winners in a bi-national contest sponsored by Polar Bears International (PBI). Project Polar Bear challenged teens to create community projects that reduce carbon emissions to lessen global warming and, therefore, protect the polar bear’s Arctic habitat. Overall, 23 teams from 12 states completed their projects for the contest. Four of the six teams from Ohio and one from Indiana were registered with the Cincinnati Zoo, one of PBI’s Arctic Ambassador Centers. Michael Young, Jack Tyndall, and Daniel McKinnon—or team Care Bears—won for their creation of the environmental action website MyActions.org. The site encourThe presentation at Upper’s assembly on Feb. 24: (from left) Jack Tyndall, Michael Young, Daniel McKinnon, Thane Maynard.
ages people worldwide to track the environmental impact of their actions and train themselves to develop environmentally sustainable habits. The PBI Contest finalists were officially announced on March 5. The Care Bears are finalists and headed to San Diego for the finals April 28! page 2
At left, the Care Bears with team advisor Craig Young.
Seven Hills hosts Sister City visitors Seven Hills hosted five visitors from Liuzhou, China, on February 9, as part of the Cincinnati-Liuzhou Sister City Project. All are English teachers except one, who works for Liuzhou Foreign Affairs Office as an interpreter and translator. This is the twelfth year Seven Hills has hosted a Sister City Teacher Exchange delegation. The visitors attended classes with their Upper School student hosts, and they visited Middle School classes. They also met
On this page, the Chinese visitors are pictured in Mrs. Lovro’s Mandarin Chinese II class. Photos from their visit to Middle School are on page 13.
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students and teachers who have participated in Seven Hills’ Downey Seminar Program, a four-week summer program of living and studying in China. Student hosts this year were seniors Ryan MacKenzie, Kristen Prevost, Graeme Harten, Mia Perlman, and Katie Cromer, all of whom participated in the Downey Seminars last summer and are members of the Mandarin Chinese II class this school year.
A look at what’s happening at Upper School
See page 13 for Middle School, page 18 for Lotspeich, and page 24 for Doherty The 10th Annual Queen City Classic (www. queencityclassic.org), a scholastic chess tournament that draws over 750 K-12 students from around the Midwest, will be held on March 11-12 at Paul Brown Stadium. Junior Alex Markovits won the tournament in 2007 as a seventh grader, and he has been invited to participate in demonstrations taking place the evening of March 11. He will join Grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov and a few other grandmasters and masters, in putting on “simuls,” where they will each play up to 40 students at once, moving quickly from board to board. This past summer, Alex achieved the title of “National Master,” held by less than one percent of tournament chess players. Alex is currently conducting after-school chess programs at Oyler Elementary and Terrace Park Elementary Junior Deepak Kumar was one of 17 top local high school programming wizards accepted into a six-hour master class sponsored by the INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati at Mother of Mercy High School on Feb. 27. The students were coached in Droid operation system coding techniques so they can build apps for the Android phone for local businesses. From the news release: “There is a real shortage of qualified programmers for all the local businesses who want to take advantage of the latest mobile app craze, including Google’s Android phones. Members of the INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati, a nonprofit collaboration of local businesses and educators, are helping fill that void by training bright local high students. The mission of the INTERalliance is to connect these budding IT professionals with future employers in the region.” Deepak is also in the running for a paid internship through the INTERalliance. page 4
Freshman Brian Hu, junior Izzy Arjmand, and senior Peppar Cyr have qualified for the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Exam) on March 17, based on their scores on the AMC (American Mathematics Competition). Students who are among the top 2.5% of AMC 10 takers and 5% of AMC 12 takers qualify. The AIME provides the exceptional students who are invited to take it with yet another opportunity to challenge their mathematical abilities. The next round is the USA Mathematics Olympiad. Talent was in abundance at Upper’s Talent Show on Feb. 26. Congratulations to emcees Harrison Addy and Matt Cohen and to all our talented students! Photos on pages 8–9.
Mrs. Scarr’s CP Biology students made models of DNA. In a later class, “they extracted DNA from the bacterium Escherichia coli and spooled it (like spaghetti) onto a glass rod,” said Mrs. Scarr. “They could see an accumulation of actual DNA molecules.”
Some of our honorees with Latin teacher Brian Sebastian. More photos next page.
Congratulations to the members of the Upper and Middle Latin Clubs for their top honors at the 2011 Ohio Junior Classical League State Convention in Columbus in which 28 schools participated in academic, creative arts, and graphic arts contests. The Seven Hills team ranked sixth in Total Sweepstakes and fifth in Academic Per Capita. Seven Hills participants were Alex Bag-
gott (tenth in Creative Arts Sweepstakes), Chris Baggott, Sarah Gresham Barr, Anne-Stuart Bell, Hannah Berger, Ben Chung, Abigail Clark, Cullen Deimer, Mark Dovich, Lindsay Finn, Clay Hausberger, Sara Hodgkins, Celeste Kearney, Pearce Kieser, Ben King, Katherine King, Jake Lautman, Emma Perentesis, Kenneth Remaklus, Claire Romaine, John Rowe, Hayden Schiff, Katie Shen, Evan Smithers, Jasmine Terry, and Lawrence Vignola.
More Classics from the Columbus convention
Seven Hills’ Junior State of America (JSA) members met Speaker of the House John Boehner in his office on their trip to the JSA Winter Congress in Washington, DC. JSA members who participated in the Winter Congress were Gabe Blanco, Conrad Jacober, Virgil Urbina Lazardi, Suhel Singh, Kate Harsh, Sara Hodgkins, Anu Vora, Sasha Lieberman, and advisor Jen Faber.
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Outstanding season for Upper’s Academic Teams
Mr. Sebastian reported on the outstanding season of Upper’s Academic Teams: “Our Academic Teams have just finished up league play and the postseason tournament. The varsity team had a 7-2 record during the regular season (Third Place), and they placed second in the league tournament. The first reserve team had a 7-1 record during the regular season (tied for First), and they placed first in the league tournament. The second reserve team had a 1-1 record during the regular season (no tournament).
In Ms. Khoo’s Precalculus bells 1 and 6 classes, students did an activity that used spaghetti to derive a trigonometric curve. “They derived a sine curve using unit circle with a spaghetti for a radius.”
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Varsity members are Peppar Cyr, Nathan Markiewitz, Aaron Markiewitz, Chase Atherton, Adair McWilliams, Elisse Hill, Stella Warner, and Sharon Liao. First reserve members are John Rowe, Alex Baggott, Chris Baggott, Katie Shen, Jay Panandiker, Ian Hillenbrand, Anne-Stuart Bell, and Cullen Deimer. Second reserve members are Hayden Schiff, Jun Ko, and Hillary Goldsmith.
In Ms. Khoo’s Stats CP class, the students did a conditional probability activity involving toy dinosaurs. She said, “Students got a hands-on approach to discovering conditional probability where as each dinosaur is drawn, the sample space changes size and offers more insight into the contents of the bag.”
A few of the chorus members who delivered the traditional Vocal Valentines to grateful recipients. page 7
Ms. Khoo’s Precalculus Bells 1 and 6 classes had fun with their Snowman project—a review of the terminal points on a unit circle.
It was a great Talent Show!
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Varsity Winter Sports
Sports photography by Keith Neu
From left, Miles Hill, Lauren Weems, Alex Wilt.
It was an outstanding winter sports season with boys swimming winning the MVC (second time in school history), a female swimmer and a gymnast each competing at state, two AllLeague Players of the Year, District (Div. IV) Player and Coach of the Year, and boys basketball heading to the districts. City and state honors have not been announced. BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL 10-10 regular season record. The Stingers were #2 seed in the sectional tournament where they won against Hillcrest (Coach Willie Hill’s 100th win!), then won 48-39 against CCDS to capture the sectional title! The Stingers play in the districts on March 11 at 9:00pm at University of Dayton Arena. Head Coach Willie Hill; Assistant Coaches Cary Daniel, Greg Burkett, Damon Johnson (’08) MVP—Miles Hill; MIP—Daniel McKinnon; Coach’s Awards— Max Davis, Miles Hill All-State (Division IV): Not announced
District 16 (Div. IV)—Coach of the Year: Willie Hill; Player of the Year—Max Davis; First Team—Max Davis, Miles Hill, Adimu Hunter-Woodard AP All-Southwest District (Div. IV) 1st Team— Max Davis Max Davis
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Enquirer All-City (Division IV): Not announced All-League (Scarlet Division): Player of the Year—Max Davis; First Team—Max Davis, Miles Hill; Honorable Mention—
Adimu Hunter-Woodard MVC Scholar-Athlete—Harrison Addy BOYS JUNIOR VARSITY BASKETBALL Coach Daniel said, “The players gave 100% and improved a great deal, finishing the season with a win.” Head Coach Cary Daniel, Assistant Coach Greg Burkett MVP—TJ Nelson; MIP—Luke Miller; Coach’s Awards— Caleb Daniel, Jonathan Tiao BOYS FRESHMAN BASKETBALL Coach Burkett said, “The team finished the regular season on a great note, giving North College Hill its only loss of the season.” The team also finished second in the MVC Tournament, upsetting #1 seed North College Hill! Coach Greg Burkett MVP—Roderick McFarland; MIP—Chris Brenning; Coach’s Award—Nick Davis GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL 11-10 record, including two wins over CHCA; Third Place in the league. Coach Werden said, “They played so hard and I’m so proud of them.” The team was #4 seed in the district tournament where they defeated Lockland 53-28 in the first round and lost to Southeastern 48-44 in the sectional semifinals. Head Coach Bob Werden; Assistant Coaches Dick Faul, Tyler McIlwraith (’03) MVPs—Claire Duncan, Lauren Weems; MIP—Olivia Koster; Coach’s Award—Katie McNamara District 16 First Team (Division IV): Lauren Weems
From left, Jack Tyndall, Graeme Harten, Carly Harten AP All-Southwest District (Division IV): Third Team: Lauren Weems, Special Mention: Claire Duncan
Enquirer All-City (Divisions II-IV): Not announced All-League (Scarlet Division): First Team—Lauren Weems; Second Team—Claire Duncan; Honorable Mention— Alexis Lindsay, Katie McNamara MVC Scholar-Athletes—Julianne Bain, Katie Cirulli, Hillary Goldsmith, Olivia Koster, Alexis Lindsay, Katie McNamara, Anna Smith, Lauren Weems GYMNASTICS The team met its season goals and placed sixth at the city meet. Alex Wilt captured First Place in the All-Around competition at the District Gymnastics Meet and competed at state where she placed 31st All-Around. Head Coach Sue Bone, Asst. Coaches Keri Betts (’05), Sarah Long MVG—Alex Wilt; MIG—Haleigh Monaco; Coach’s Award— Amy Mauro All-District: Not announced Enquirer All-City: Not announced MVC Scholar-Athletes—Hannah Batsche, Lauren Driskell, Emily Long, Haleigh Monaco, Emma Weitzenkorn, Sarah Williamson, Alex Wilt BOYS SWIMMING At the MVC Meet, the boys team captured the MVC title, Evan Werner was league champion in the 500-yard freestyle event, and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Graeme Harten, Ryan MacKenzie, Chris Gangl, and Evan Werner set a new school record. At the sectionals, Evan Werner qualified for districts in both the 200 and 500 freestyle events. The relay team of Jeff Brown, Graeme Harten, Evan Werner, and Chris Gangl (with alternates Gabe Blanco and Jack Tyndall) competed in the district meet in both the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay. The 200 free relay team broke a ten-year-old school record. Head Coach Robin Murphy; Assistant Coaches Katie Forster, Beth Wessel MVS—Graeme Harten, Jack Tyndall; MIS—Nathan Markiewitz; Coach’s Awards—Jeff Brown, Ari Shifman All-League: First Team—Evan Werner MVC Scholar-Athletes—Gabe Blanco, Jeff Brown, Graeme Harten, Ryan MacKenzie, Nathan Markiewitz, Ari Shifman, Jack Tyndall CHEERLEADING The team did a great job of leading Stinger Spirit. page 7 11
Off-court activities included in a United Cheerleading Association private camp and doing volunteer work together at Bethany House. Coach Natalie Wildfong MVC—Libby Carter; MIC—Jasmine Terry; Coach’s Award— Jasmine Cline-Bailey All-League: First Team—Libby Carter MVC Scholar-Athletes—Maddie Caldemeyer, Katie Lewis, Anne Mapes, Shea Renusch, Maddie Shanahan, Celine Shirooni GIRLS SWIMMING At the MVC Meet, the team finished second, Sarah Austin (at right) placed first in both the 200 IM and the 500 yard freestyle, and she was named MVC Female Swimmer of the Year and SOSL Swimmer of the Year. The relay team of Sarah Austin, Carly Harten, Leah Yuan, and Ellie Wilson finished first in the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay. At districts, the 200-yard medley relay team of Sarah, Carly Harten, Leah, and Ellie finished eighth. This team also placed 10th in the 400-yard freestyle relay. In individual events, Leah finished 16th in the 100-yard butterfly and 21st in the 100-yard freestyle events. Ellie placed 19th in the 100yard butterfly and 13th in the 100-yard breaststroke. Sarah finished second in the 500-yard freestyle and fourth in the 200 IM events, qualifying her to compete at the state meet, where she finished 11th in the 200 yard IM and fifth in the 500-yard freestyle event. Head Coach Robin Murphy; Assistant Coaches Katie Forster, Beth Wessel MVS—Carly Harten; MIS—Ellie Wilson; Coach’s Awards— Emily Holloway, Kristen Prevost S. Ohio Swim League: Swimmer of the Year—Sarah Austin All-League: Female Swimmer of the Year—Sarah Austin; First Team—Sarah Austin, Carly Harten, Ellie Wilson, Leah Yuan MVC Scholar-Athletes—Sarah Austin, Leah Cromer, Federica Fernandez, Kimia Ghazi, Kate Harsh, Carly Harten, Helen Head, Emily Holloway, Kristen Prevost, Ellie Wilson, Leah Yuan
Winter spor ts season award winners
Mr. Phelps said, “On Feb. 17, we hosted seven Lockland High students to our school for the day. Lockland will host our students in March. The Miami Valley Conference sets up student exchanges between schools to help promote sportsmanship between schools and also to give kids a chance to see what it
is like to experience a friendly rival school. The Seven Hills hosts were seniors Julianne Bain, Miles Hill; juniors Hillary Goldsmith, Emily Bedell (shared hosting with Hillary), Harrison Addy, Ryan Ferrell (shared hosting with Harrison); sophomores TJ Robinson, Caleb Daniel; and freshman Emily Addy.”
Seven Hills has had outstanding squash players in past years, and this year is no exception. Five of our students—juniors Betsy Johnson and Ginger Johnson, sophomore Ellen Coombe, and freshmen Connor Rouan and Emma Uible—are members of the citywide seven-member Cincinnati High School Squash Team, which was formed at the start of the school year. “These players have all previously participated in individual squash tournaments, but this is the first year Cincinnati has assembled a competing team,” reported junior Sharon Liao in the Canvass. “All of the players are ranked nationally, with most of them within the top 100, and some of them even in the top 50. The team is led by Coach Jamie Crombie, the head squash professional at Cincinnati Country Club, where the team practices.”
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Pictured at left are team members (kneeling) Ginger Johnson, Ellen Coombe; Emma Uible, Betsy Johnson, Ben Turnbull (Indian Hill), and Connor Rouan. Not pictured is Arial Cohen (Walnut Hills).
A look at what’s happening at Middle School Mr. Betts with state-bound mathletes (front) Max Pochobradsky, Andrei Savu; Daniel Grass, Matthew Clayton, Andrew Wilson, and Tigar Cyr.
Mr. Betts reported, “Seven Hills Middle School participated in the Cincinnati Chapter MATHCOUNTS competition at U.C. on Saturday, Feb. 26. Our team finished in Third Place among the 37 teams competing and will be moving on to the state competition in Columbus on Saturday, March 12. Team members were sixth grader Daniel Grass; seventh graders Matthew Clayton, Tigar Cyr, Andrei Savu; eighth graders Max Pochobradsky and Andrew Wilson. “Tigar Cyr was our top mathlete, finishing in sixth place out of approximately 300 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. By finishing as one of the top 16 individuals, Tigar also participated in the Countdown Round. Five of our mathletes finished in the top 25% of the participants.” Mr. Rising reported, “The Middle School has collected 134 pair of jeans for the national Teens for Jeans initiative (sponsored by Aéropostale Clothing Company and DoSomething.org). We increased our numbers from last year. The jeans will be sent to area shelters. The kids did a great job!” From the Teens for Jeans website: “Teens for Jeans is a national campaign that empowers teenagers across the country to donate jeans to homeless youth. Spearheaded by DoSomething.org and Aero, this program will surpass 1 million jeans donated to homeless over the past four years. 1 in 3 homeless people in the US are under the age of 18.”
Seven Hills Mandarin Chinese teacher Peggy Lovro (left) and a Sister City visitor in Mrs. Haskins’ math class.
Sister City visitors at Middle School
Continued from page 3
Mrs. Maupin’s eighth grade English classes have the opportunity to work with a member of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company on an exciting new project over five weeks. More on page 14. During the week of Feb. 21, PE classes learned different kinds of square dancing, as well as the history of the tradition. They are pictured on page 19 doing the Virginia Reel.
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Seventh grade science class with Mrs. Glum.
Eighth graders discover for themselves: “The play’s the thing!” Mrs. Maupin’s eighth grade English students are experiencing a deeper understanding of Shakespeare as a playwright and play producer, as they collaborate by class period to create their own production of Romeo and Juliet. The students in Mrs. Maupin’s five classes are working with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company actor/teacher Billy Chace over five full Mondays to adapt and assemble a representative piece or pieces from each of the five acts of Romeo and Juliet. Each class is responsible for adapting, performing, and staging its assigned act. Mrs. Maupin said, “My dream is to accessorize the scene(s) with costumes, props, and soundtrack, where appropriate, threading the parts together with a kind of narrator/troubadour. The final ‘draft’ of this would be presented ’in the round’ to the Middle School sometime the week of April 18 or 25. “The creative possibilities of this project, working with a highly regarded professional, are endless. It doesn’t get any better than this!”
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The third bell class (Act II, Rising Action) is pictured with Billy Chace on his first day at Middle.
Far from Cincinnati’s cold.....
It was a great opportunity and unforgettable experience as 43 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders and their five chaperones spent Feb.17–21 on a Marine Biology Study Trip at Newfound Harbor Marine Institute at Seacamp, located at Big Pine Key, about 30 miles northeast of Key West. Assistant Technology Director and chaperone Dan Dinger, who organized the trip, described some of the students’ activities: “snorkeling workshop, coastal marine ecology class, nearshore ecology class, offshore ecology class, Cassiopeia Lab where students observed how environmental conditions affect the health of the Cassiopeia (upside down jellyfish), a squid dissection lab, snorkeling and collecting sponges, grasses, marine animals, corals, etc. “We also enjoyed an evening campfire and astronomy lesson and swimming with sharks in the shark pond. The kids had a fantastic time and everything worked out perfectly.”
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Spring cleaning? Square dancing in PE classes!
The Resale Shop’s donations are very LOW right now, and our shop needs your contribution of saleable merchandise!
5400 Red Bank Road
(across from The Seven Hills School)
Cincinnati, OH 45227 513-271-7977 resaleshop@fuse.net
- Donations accepted anytime shop is open - Staff assistance unloading cars - Tax deduction forms available - Items can be on hangers, bags, and boxes. - Every season accepted everyday - Revisit often to refill our stock The shop no longer accepts televisions, refrigerators, computers and components.
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Middle School Winter Sports
MVC champions: (front) Catherine Bain, Olivia Silverman; (back) Mary Alice Vignola, Camille Williams, Maddy Cole, Libby Gerhardt, Maggie Gosiger. Alexandrea Allen, not pictured above, is pictured at left.
Middle School gymnastics, coached by Sue Bone and assisted by Keri Betts (’05), had a very successful season. Coach Bone said, “Grace Cawdrey was the Most Improved Gymnast but the girls all improved greatly. We didn’t have any girls who had trained at a gymnastics studio. They learned a lot and were very competitive. They placed third at most meets and second at the Cincinnati Country Day Invitational. All scores improved from the first meet. The girls met their team goals in score for each meet and, at the last meet, they exceeded the goal of scoring a 120 by finishing with a 123.” Middle School Athletic Director Roger Schnirring reported, “The boys basketball A team set their goals very high for the season and delivered. They totaled 11 wins on the season and advanced to the semifinals of the MVC A Tournament. Three of the team’s four losses were by 5 points or less. The boys battled through injuries and illnesses during the season but, because they were so deep in talent, they were able to persevere. Highlights include wins over Mariemont, CHCA, North College Hill, and Summit. The boys played as a team throughout the season and had balanced scoring from all players. The future looks bright for the high school teams. The Stingers were coached by Ed Wiseman and Bob Kirch. “Boys basketball B team Coach John Krauss knew going in to the season that he was going to have a lot of talent on his team, but his challenge was going to be having a team of half seventh and half eighth graders playing together as a team. The boys accepted the challenge and pulled off a page 17
10-win season. Eighth grade leadership and seventh graders accepting their roles on the team led to this success. The Stingers advanced to the semifinals of the MVC Tournament and improved as players throughout the season. Evidence of this improvement was losing to CHCA in early January by over 20 points but taking them to overtime the second time around in February. Turner Anderson and Brian Hills led the team in scoring and Ike Lanier provided steady defense and rebounding. Once again the future looks bright, as these boys make the jump to the next level. “The boys C Team played a very tough MVC and non-league schedule this basketball season. The record doesn’t tell the story, but the players improved with every game and gained valuable playing experience through the course of the season. Beating league rival CCD at home was one of the big highlights of the season. Guards Jared Fisher and Keith Mandell provided both leadership and scoring from the the 3 point line for the Stingers. The boys were coached by Craig Young.” The girls basketball team culminated its 2010-11 season winning the MVC A Division championship game versus CHCA 37-31. The seventh and eighth graders defeated both the number one and two seeded teams in their quest to become league champions. Head Coach Linda Clark said, “The team’s overall record was 14-3, which was achieved by outstanding team play and significant effort and determination by all players. It was a wonderful season filled with exciting basketball.” Assistant Coaches were Sally Leyman and Kari Kramer.
A look at what’s happening at Lotspeich
Mrs. Necesssary wrote, “Hannah Elluru, a wonderful student in my second grade class, has decided to take part in a community service initiative started by Nickelodeon called ‘The Big Help.’ Children are encouraged to ‘change the world one action at a time.’ She has put a lot of heart and effort into this. Hannah is raising money for her local animal shelter through various efforts, the first of which is collecting gently-used books.” She will sell the books to Half Price Books and use the proceeds to start the fund for the shelter. Mrs. Kramer said, “The pre-K is conducting a Service Project by collecting school supplies for new schools in Haiti. Tyler McIlwraith (’03), pre-K and Extended Day teacher, will be spending one week of her spring break in Haiti training new Haitian teachers, and she is collecting school supplies to bring to a school that has no supplies. We are excited to help out and look forward to hearing about Tyler’s trip upon her return.” Lotspeich and Doherty fifth graders participated in a Kindness Retreat, led by Youth Frontiers, on Mar. 2. See page 27. As part of their Valentine’s Day buddy activity, the first graders decorated their Valentine’s bags with the help of their fifth grade buddies.
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First graders celebrated the 100th Day of school on February 7. Miss Braun said, “We celebrated our 100th day of school in many ways. We designed wonderful 100th Day hats. We added our 100th straw to our Days of School boxes and moved all of the straws from the Ones box and the Tens box to the Hundreds box. We learned a song about “One, Zero, Zero” and sang it at our Monday morning assembly. We made a large banner of the numbers from 1 to 100 using our Days of School signs. We began working on our Number Scrolls and have now written the numbers past 100. We even enjoyed a 100 we could eat for a snack!”
Just a few of the kindergartners’ guests on Parents Day.
Fifth graders experimented with physical and chemical changes along with acids to make cheese!
Mrs. Balskus said, “As part of a Colonial simulation game, fifth graders recently recreated the experience of sailing to America as indentured servants—cramped quarters and all! After viewing a descriptive ‘Voyage on the Mayflower’ movie, colony groups gathered their worldly possessions (coats and book bags) and assembled in 7’ X 5’ rectangular areas.
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Food served included homemade hardtack, sardines, sauerkraut and onions to ward off scurvy. It was washed down with water that was laced with vinegar and oregano. Everyone agreed that they were glad they lived in the 21st century! It is one of the most fun and educational things we do!”
Fancy Day Tea Party Tiarras and ties, including original designs, were the order of the day for the pre-Kindergartners’ Fancy Day Tea Party on Feb. 23. Students and teachers alike donned their fanciest attire and shiniest jewels, as they sat at tables decorated with fresh flowers and shared strawberries, Craisins, marshmallows, lemon poppyseed muffins made by the three-year-old class, lemonade or tea, and lively conversation.
Photos of the fancy teachers next page
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“Second graders had a wonderful time experiencing Happen Inc.’s Toy Lab, which took the form of a visiting field trip this year,” said Ms. Feeney. “Happen Inc. brought its mobile toy-construction unit to school, where students were able to create their own toys using recycled toy parts. When students
Ms. Feeney said, “The second graders were a privy audience to a demonstration of Korean instrumental music. To extend our study of Japan and China, students had an opportunity also to experience a taste of Korean musical culture through a variety of percussion and stringed instruments, a mini-concert, and a question-andanswer session.” Go to the Lotspeich Corner on our website for many more photos and movies of Lotspeich events and activities. page 21
were not designing toys with their own specific superpowers, they were engaged in workshops in the classrooms, working on thumbnail sketches as a form of brainstorming, creating a paper toy, and generating art using everyday materials. The students explored the creative process in many ways!”
Mrs. Riser said, “Fifth graders organized data collected from a survey of themselves and their buddies about their “Favorites.” After organizing the data, the students produced double bar graphs comparing fifth grade to first grade or girls to boys using the iWorks Number program.
Mrs. Riser said, “A second trimester S’more Lunch was held for fifth grade math students who consistently solved extra credit challenge problems because they enjoy doing ‘s’more math.‘ Hot chocolate and hot s’mores were enjoyed by all.” page 22
At the Monday morning assembly on Feb. 14, the audience of students and guests was treated to impressive performances of instrumental music by fourth graders and poetry recitation by third graders.
Mrs. Wilson said, “The fifth graders did a presentation in class of ‘Water Dance’ by Thomas Locker. The students created movement and music to go with the poetry of different stages of the water cycle.”
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A look at what’s happening at Doherty show based on the life and writings of Frederick Douglass. Douglass is depicted coming back to his old slave quarters after the emancipation of the slaves to personally confront his former slave master. He encourages others that freedom is more that just a physical freedom: it is also a state of mind and can be obtained regardless of geography.“
Third grader Alison Speicher spent the day in Frankfurt, Kentucky, as a page for Rep. Royce Adams. The Unit I Winter Poetry Presentation featured poems by a favorite, Shel Silverstein, and a few Australian poets, new to the children, in celebration of Doherty’s all-school study of Australia this year. In these presentations, the students have the opportunity to expand their love for poetry, work on stage presence and publicspeaking skills, and build self-confidence. The students did a wonderful job! Many thanks to the parents who were able to attend. Doherty and Lotspeich fifth graders participated in a Kindness Retreat, led by Youth Frontiers, on Mar. 2. See page 27.
Mrs. Dawson’s fourth and fifth graders Skyped with students in County Mayo, Ireland. This was the culminating activity of an iEarn project that Mrs. Dawson’s class was involved in last year, in which students shared events in their daily life through e-mails and photos. The class plans to Skype in March to have students from the school in County Mayo share a glimpse of how they celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The 17th and 18th of March are national holidays in Ireland, so the Skype will take place prior to St. Patrick’s Day.
Unit I and Unit II buddies designed valentines for Montgomery Care Center. On Valentine’s Day the residents receive cards on their breakfast trays
Skyping with County Mayo, Ireland
Thank you to Mrs. Linda Cyr this update on our outstanding swimmers: “Three Seven Hills swimmers competed for Team Ohio at the Central Zone meet in Wisconsin last summer. Each swimmer qualified and swam in five events with best place finishes as follows: fifth grader Lucy Callard, 15th in the 100-Meter Butterfly; fifth grader Tindar Cyr, 2nd in the 100- Meter Breaststroke; and seventh grader Matthew Marquardt, 12th in the 200-Meter Butterfly. Tindar and Matthew also swam relays for Team Ohio. During the Long Course State Meet, Tindar’s 200-Meter Medley Relay team (Cincinnati Marlins) set a new state record, besting one that had stood for over 40 years.” These athletes, plus seventh graders Tigar Cyr, Henry Marquardt, and Claire McDonald, are getting ready to compete at the Ohio Junior Olympics in March. First grader Alex Orsulak brought in a treat to celebrate Chinese New Year. Students learned about the holiday and enjoyed traditional Chinese candy.
Mrs. MacKenzie said, “Units II and III enjoyed a wonderful and moving performance on Frederick Douglass (produced by Mobile Ed productions, Inc). ‘The Starry Road to Freedom’ is a one-man page 24
Go to the Doherty Corner on our website for many more photos and movies of Doherty events and activities.
Second graders are pictured at left making a flag for the social studies unit, “Make Your Own Country.” Designed by Unit II teacher Sarah Roberts, this was one of the new curricular units created last summer, thanks to a generous grant to fund research and curriculum development grants for Seven Hills teachers. More on this exciting unit in future Buzzes.
Unit I and Unit II buddies designed valentines for Montgomery Care Center. On Valentine’s Day the residents received cards on their breakfast trays and cheerful decorations in their hallways.
During Everybody Counts Week, Unit I students experienced what it would be like to be visually impaired. Children used walking sticks, poured liquid into a cup, and read braille while wearing a blindfold. Also, as part of Everybody Counts page 25
Week, special guests Jan Danner and her guide dog Ivana visited with Unit I and discussed her life and how she uses Ivana on a daily basis.
Unit III had special visitors from Starfire on February 23. The special guests prepared lesson plans and gave presentations to the students on recycling, the food pyramid, weight lifting, and yoga. Starfire is a nonprofit organization that enables individuals with disabilities to become active and vital members of the community.
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Starfire at Doherty
A lively Kindness Retreat for fifth graders! Doherty and Lotspeich fifth graders participated in the high-energy, interactive Kindness Retreat, led by Youth Frontiers, in the Hillsdale Commons on March 2. Guidance Counselors Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Moser said, “Youth Frontiers is a nonprofit organization that strives to build positive school communities and help young people realize the importance of respecting themselves and others. During the Kindness Retreat, the Youth Frontiers staff engaged students in activities that demonstrated the painful effects of bullying and emphasized the value of kindness.� Helping with the Kindness Retreat activities were sophomores Jasmine Cline-Bailey, Caleb Daniel, Christopher Gangl, Carly Harten, Allison Hills, Kerry Hoar, Sara Hodgkins, John Larkin, Emily Long, Bob Seibel, and Amanda Shepherd.
These photos show the start of the retreat: lots of high 5s, which led to high 10s, which led to high 15s, which led with much fun and creative thinking to high 20s (demonstrated below by the Youth Frontiers staffer)!
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