April 4, 2005

Dear Friends,

Welcome back from spring break. I hope it was a good time for you and your family.

This issue of the eNewsletter is devoted largely to our dramatically successful Intersession week. A few comments:

1. My deep appreciation goes to our faculty members who gave their all in planning, execution and supervision-and were still smiling at the end.

2. All of the students met people and situations they had not seen before, on film, in a virtual universe, on the MUNI, on the farm, at Glide Memorial. They will carry some of those images for the rest of their lives, adding to their list of resources for wisdom and passion.

3. The students all reflected and responded, on film, in poetry, in rituals, sharing and internalizing their experiences more deeply.

4. As a community, our appreciation of the richness of the San Francisco community was deepened.

One of the hardest dilemmas of curriculum construction involves the pull between deepening the pure academic experience and sampling the "real" world. We are strenuously committed to the former. The academic enterprise has an integrity of its own which has value in itself and in the mental training it gives its graduates. While our content areas lean toward the present and future, traditional skills of communication and analysis remain as important as ever. We are a school. This is what we do.

And yet.

My heart sings when I see or hear of the students out and about. They are rehearsing the adult part they will have to play only too soon. Perhaps they are developing a passion which will inform their academic career as well as life choices. Perhaps they are learning a companionship with other humans they would not otherwise know. Perhaps they are developing confidence in their own competences in a variety of areas.

A good week; a great tradition established.

Yours very sincerely,
Father Malcolm

Learning Through Experience

Bay School academic philosophy and curriculum value a "depth over breadth" approach to meaningful learning. Each year a highlight of the academic schedule is a week-long project period called Intersession during which Bay School students and faculty members have the opportunity to focus on the exploration and study of one specific area or topic of interest. This year's inaugural Intersession program was scheduled during the week of March 7^th - 11^th.

Intersession courses are proposed and designed by faculty and students working together. In order to be approved, course content must support the school's mission and be connected to the school's core curriculum. Intersession course goals are clearly articulated and require course outcomes that are substantive. Perhaps most importantly, Intersession programs are intentionally designed to encourage the application of student learning in the world outside the classroom. Full participation in an Intersession course each year is part of the school's requirements for graduation.

2005 Intersession course offerings included a wide selection of topics and activities. Four courses involved primarily off-campus activities - exploring the varied neighborhoods, diverse cultures, and religious communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. Two courses based on campus offered students the opportunity to build their understanding and skills in the areas of media literacy/criticism and virtual reality design and production.

Sushi Sonnets and Haiku Haggis

"The highlight of this course was really learning what food means to peoples from countries besides America. In countries like China, Japan, and Italy, food isn't meant to just get you full, it's meant to give you a special experience and enjoyment" Peter Anthony, Student

During Intersession week our group of ten adventurous students learned not only about several different ethnic cuisines, but in the process, also began to understand the important relationship between food and culture through poetry. Each day students received short cultural introductions, learned about the respective poetic traditions, wrote in their journals, and read poetry. As the week progressed, they were asked to record their thoughts and observations - expressing them first in journals and next in poetic form.

At the Go-Go Café on Irving Street, where we shared a traditional Chinese breakfast on Monday, the food turning on the lazy susan at the center of our round table for thirteen told a communal story. Miles explained how both old and young members of a Chinese family typically vie for the privilege of serving each other first, as a means of showing mutual respect. The importance of tradition in Chinese culture was reaffirmed through the study of the classic Chinese Lushi poetic style.

From China we traveled to southern Italy where fresh organic vegetables were our focus, accompanied by the poetic tradition of Dante, Petrarch, and deLentino – sonnets written in meter and rhyme scheme. On Tuesday we visited the organic Mariquita Farm in the central valley where we stood looking out across fields of varied green rows, (complete with weeds), learning about organic agricultural practices. Alongside Andy Griffin, the farmer/owner, we watched a fava bean field being plowed under for fertilizer; its roots transferring nitrogen from the air into the soil. Wednesday's image was a pizza - as students learned about the southern Italian tradition involving more greens and vegetables than tomato sauce at restaurant A16 on Chestnut Street.

Thursday morning was spent celebrating the arrival of spring amongst the vivid colors and fragrances in the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park. There we learned and practiced the unique Japanese poetic form Haiku, which is based upon imagery of the 5 senses. Lunch followed at Sushi Ran in Sausalito. The Japanese food we shared was another feast for our senses. Our host, restaurant owner Yoshiro, taught us all about the Japanese love for fresh fish as we ate at the beautifully arranged table outside his restaurant. Each dish was a work of art in itself reflecting the importance placed on all aspects of design in Japanese life.

Friday's introduction to Mexican poetry considered the works of Neruda, Paz, and Lorca, specifically examining their use of metaphor. Friday's image is the woman grinding corn and forming dough at the back of a shop in the Mission. As we walked to the Taco truck, we each munched on a small hand-made tortilla, as fresh and authentic as one could find outside someone's private home.

Bill Brown – Humanities Teacher
Miles Chen – Physics, Chemistry, and Fine Arts Teacher

Sushi Sonnets and Haiku Haggis — Student Poems

Second Life: A Workshop in Virtual Reality

"I learned a lot about Second Life and how to do things there - in the world of virtual reality. I learned about how people are using technology more and more and replacing things they can't control (like nature) with the ideal of that place that they can control." Kelly Wyatt, Second Life Student

Ten students, all possessing a keen interest in technology and an eagerness to develop a vision and skill set working in another dimension, spent Intersession in a world of virtual reality right here in the media lab on campus.

In our course students developed an understanding of virtual reality (VR) technologies that included 3D modeling, programming, and graphical interface and design. They accessed VR via the awe-inspiring Second Life, a private VR portal created by Linden Lab, that provides a space for experimentation in building and design. Students created their own avatar (incarnation) and set out to complete a set of tasks based in the virtual world. Moral and ethical issues and considerations were a continuing topic of discussion. At the conclusion of the workshop, students had gained a working knowledge of virtual conditions, programming expertise involving a working transportation vehicle, and valuable practical experience in dealing with important building blocks of future technology. The highlight of the week's workshop was the visit of VR guru, Phillip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab and creator of the Second Life VR portal.

As teachers we so often try to make things be as authentic as possible for our students - we go to great lengths to design curriculum that applies to real life. So, to put a new technology in the hands of 10 students and say "pretend anything you want" feels a little unusual at first. I soon realized the power of such a technology where virtually anything is possible - experiment!

Gregory Fleischer – New Media Instructor

Four Neighborhoods and Three Centuries on Two Wheels

How many cultures inhabit the Mission? How long has the Castro been there? Where are the famous jazz clubs in the Fillmore? Where are the real boundaries of Chinatown?

San Francisco is a jumble of wonderfully diverse neighborhoods, each with a different feel, a different look, and a unique history. Eleven Bay School freshmen spent Intersession week pedaling around and through the Mission and Castro districts, dining in the Fillmore, touring Civic Center, and uncovering the intriguing history of Chinatown. In each area the group took a historical/architectural tour, had lunch, took photographs, and talked with long-term residents. Students experienced first-hand what San Francisco is all about.

Bicycling was the ideal way to experience a city the size of San Francisco because it put us in direct contact with the breadth of the city's landscape, neighborhoods, and citizens. We explored parts of San Francisco that many students had never visited, and it also showed them that bicycling is a fun, easy, safe, and ecological way to travel.

To focus the group's daily activities, students kept journals in which they recorded their observations and assessments at each stop. In some cases they were assigned writing prompts asking them to compare neighborhoods; at other times they were asked to follow a specific route through a neighborhood in order to make sociological and architectural observations as they walked; at still other times they drew maps outlining the neighborhood we were in, thus challenging them to decide where one neighborhood ended and the next began.

Looking back, the students remember most vividly the people they met: the rambling homeless man, the "third generation San Francisco native" who complained about how newcomers had ruined his neighborhood, the storekeeper in the Castro, the manager of the African-American Cultural Center who gave us a lengthy tour, the mayoral aide who showed us City Hall, and many more.

I enjoyed the opportunity to share with my students the city that has been my home for fourteen years. I was able to show them many wonderful places they had only heard of - pointing out the humanity and beauty that exist in parts of our community often considered as being "bad neighborhoods."

Tom Henning – Physics Teacher and Sailing Coach
Dennis Hartzell – Writing Workshop Teacher

Exploring Religious Experiences Around The Bay

"I was able to see people differently than I would ever have been able to during school. By our exposure to many religions we were able to see the way all of humanity is ultimately linked, traveling through life separately, yet continuing to work towards the same goal." Cecily Scherschlight, Student

Taking full advantage of the religious diversity that surrounds us throughout the Bay Area, our Intersession group of eleven girls began their exploration of religious rituals at Glide Memorial Church on Sunday, March 6^th. The primary goal of our program was to experience different types of religious ceremonies, aiming to discover what they mean to the people who practice them and to then consider what rituals mean in our own lives. By the end of the week students had learned about and participated in rituals that are at the core of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Native American, Islamic, and Jewish faith traditions, and had planned out a ritual of their own to share with the Bay School community launching a new school tradition.

Religion Around The Bay Highlights:

• Seeing 8 of our Bay School girls in the front row at Glide Memorial Church, appreciating the gospel choir, dancing, and sharing the peace with strangers.
• Listening to our students ask excellent questions of a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf and robe about why she chooses to dress traditionally.
• Seeing our girls jump right into a Wiccan (native American) ritual – cleansing the math room of previous knowledge before we started our ceremony to honor the earth.
• Learning the Hindu stories behind Yoga positions such as the Hanuman pose.
• Having bindies (painted "eyes") placed on our foreheads at the Hindu temple.
• Seeing the glorious stained glass at Temple Emmanuel.
• Walking the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral.
• Experiencing the powerful and somber presence in the temple at Green Gulch Zen Center.
• Participating in a Japanese tea ceremony in which each person said "excuse me for going before you" each time they drank before the person on their left.
• Watching the girls joyously plan and lead a new school ritual ceremony that they hope will be around for the next 100 years!

Teah Strozer, Bay School Chaplain
Moneeka Settles, Dean of Students

Hitting the Streets of San Francisco

Who are the people hard at work keeping our city running while we're hard at work in school every day? What is it like to drive a MUNI bus, to be a PG&E repairman or woman? How early do shop keepers rise to sell their produce at the markets in Chinatown? What is it like to be a street sweeper or a parking "meter maid"? What does it take to keep our streets clean?

Our group of ten aspiring documentary filmmakers took to the streets via MUNI, traveling across San Francisco for three days during Intersession week. Armed with digital and video cameras they interviewed blue collar workers engaged in a variety of tasks.

Our preparation began on Monday with a discussion of "What is photo journalism?" We considered the differences between documentaries and movies and viewed samples to formulate our ideas. Students learned the basic techniques of interviewing and the use of video cameras. How do we approach our subjects and what will we say? How will we deal with rejections or interference? Students poured over maps of San Francisco as well as MUNI maps to carefully plot their routes.

When the group returned to campus on Friday students had gained a much broader perspective and great deal of respect for the workers who make our city run. They shot more than 2 hours of video tape that was then edited down to a 15 minute presentation shown to the entire Bay School community at Gathering on March 17th. We had a great time!

Shelley Banks - Foreign Language Teacher
Darrick Broudy - Humanities Teacher
Steve Glass, Athletic Director

Hitting the Streets Slideshow

The Teenager in Film and Television

"My favorite day was when we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about analyzing movies. I had never really thought before that each shot was done in a specific way to reflect the characters and their actions in a scene. Before this course, I had never looked at a movie in an analytical way." – Millie Harris, Student

Today's teenagers are seeped in the pop culture that surrounds them on television, on the Internet, and in films. The goal of our Intersession course titled: The Teenager in Film and Television was to empower our students to become critical thinkers, equipped with the analytical tools necessary to decipher and evaluate what they see and hear in the mass media, able to ask questions, and in the end, able to form their own well considered opinions.

Intersession week began with the study of basic cinematic terminology and mechanics in order to build vocabulary and structural understanding. Production techniques such as camera movement and angles, lighting, and editing techniques were discussed in relation to their impact in shaping a film's message.

Our group of 12 film students screened a broad selection of movies throughout the week - all of which featured teenagers in central roles. Following each film, students completed written viewing notes recording their impressions about the literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements of each movie. Students wrote and shared personal statements in response to questions asking them to consider whether the portrayal of the film's teenage characters seemed realistic, and commenting about how closely the portrayal of the characters related to their own experience. We were fortunate to have a visit by Scott Combs, PhD. candidate at the U.C. Berkeley Film School, who discussed both film making technique and criticism with our students following the screening of the 2003 film Elephants. Our Intersession course culminated in the production of a multimedia presentation that was screened for Bay School students, faculty, and staff. It was truly an illuminating week.

Rachel Shaw, Librarian

A Wet Start to The Spring Season

At long last, Bay School spring sports seasons are under way. For the first several weeks of March it felt as though we were underwater! After several rain-outs, and many indoor practices, our girls' soccer and boys' baseball teams have managed to play two games each.

At press time, the girls have played games against Athenian and University High School. Coach Matt Hannibal is excited by how well the novice team has come together already, and by their positive spirit and eagerness to learn.

The boys' baseball team also played their first game against Athenian holding their own against the Owls, Athenian's more experienced varsity squad. I was very pleased to receive this e-mail the next day from an Athenian player:

"Hi, my name is Andres Gopnik-Lewinski. I attend the Athenian School and am on the baseball team. Our two teams played on Thursday at Athenian and I just wanted to tell you how well they played. I am a junior and play catcher, and it really inspired me to see the courage and heart that your players brought to the field. I thought that the team played well and represented their school even better. I hope you guys have a great season and look forward to playing you again next year. Good Luck and light bats," Andres Gopnik-Lewinski

The following week BAY baseball earned our first win of the season in a victory over JCHS.

Meanwhile, poor weather hasn't hurt our after school sports activities. Members of The Bay School sailing team have been out there beating the elements as they sail all over San Francisco Bay. Our yoga students continue to increase flexibility, strength, agility, and focus while they practice here on campus. Weight training students have been working hard with personal trainers at the Main Post YMCA building their own personal fitness levels.

Steve Glass, Athletic Director

ROV Club News - Upcoming Regional Competition

The Bay School Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Team is hard at work putting the finishing touches on our underwater robot for the April 16th competition in Monterey. The winners of this regional competition qualify for the nationals to be held this year at NASA Headquarters in Houston, Texas.

Physics teacher and former mechanical engineer, Tom Henning, who is leading the Bay School's ROV Team, finds that our young engineers follow a work pattern identical to the seasoned Silicon Valley vets that he used to work with. They start very slowly, mulling over various options, and at the last minute shift into high gear and work at breakneck speed to finish in time. The group, led by team managers Milli Harris, Vicky Holt, Meg Millhouse, and Alex Heimann, spent much of the winter considering concepts for the vehicle's chassis, video, and propulsion systems on paper. When they set out to build prototypes, they discovered that many of the systems were very difficult to build, given the ever-present necessity to keep water out of everything electrical. In recent weeks however, the work has accelerated. Saturday work sessions, originally just four hours long, now stretch to eight hours and longer.

Although we are the first school in San Francisco to enter this national competition, and despite our rookie status, The Bay School's ROV Team has a unique advantage, in the persons of Ty Boyce, a renowned expert in the design of underwater robotic systems, and Dennis Frezzo, an experienced electrical engineer and engineering teacher. These two professionals have been working directly with our students - helping them solve the very significant engineering problems that they face, without taking any of the fun, or risk of failure, away from them. Dennis and Ty both report enjoying their work with the bright and able members of the ROV Team, and the kids really appreciate the chance to work with real engineers.

The upcoming competition is something that shouldn't be missed! Fifty ROV teams from across northern California will be in attendance, and we will be there competing directly against sixteen of them. Fifteen feet under water and guided only by our onboard video "eyes" our vehicle must accomplish three specified tasks guided entirely by remote control within fifteen minutes.

The competition will be held at Monterey Peninsula College on Saturday, April 16th (www.mpc.edu) from 10am to 5pm. We encourage any and all members of The Bay School community to come and cheer us on.

Please contact ROV Team advisor, Tom Henning, with questions and/or to volunteer to assist with transportation and other support: thenning@bayschoolsf.org.

April Events Calendar