The Bay School of San Francisco - eNewsletter

:: monthly news from The Bay School of San Francisco - April / May 2010

Letter from Head of School

Timothy W. Johnson

April 27, 2010

Dear Friends,

For a dozen years, my wife and I have endured the long overnight flights from SFO to spend the Easter week at our farm in the south of Ireland. The usual pattern is to spend the preceding week in overdrive, finishing the dozens of tasks that require immediate attention, then to make a dash for the plane. Once on board, we fall into a long restless nap, first on the nine-hour leg to London, followed by a short hop west by commuter plane to the Emerald Isle.

Because there is all too little time during the school year for much reflective reading, I always lug along a diverse stack of titles to savor while relaxing in front of the peat-burning hearth in the farmhouse. On this recent trip, however, I deviated from my normal airplane routine and opened Daniel H. Pink's engaging new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. Pink is a business writer, so his messages are not specifically directed at educators or parents. Nonetheless, this powerful book kept my full attention as we flew over the pole.

Pink makes a provocative, evidence-based case that people's true, most authentic motivation is intrinsic, rather than a result of external rewards. In the 21st century, an era that will be rich (perhaps even overwhelmed) with information, change and unforeseen opportunities, true motivation will evolve from the desires of individuals for three related states of being:

Autonomy: people want to exercise greater control over their work lives, since this leads to a high level of engagement.
Mastery: people want to get better at something that matters, especially if their mindset values effort and commitment.
Purpose: people want to "hitch their desires to a cause larger than themselves."

These ideas are not new at all at the Bay School, since the philosophy and program emanate from a belief that all our students have the capacity and will to develop the skills, habits and values that will serve them and the world that they will help to shape.

At Bay, teachers celebrate the potential, capacity and individual differences of every student. Through the school's curricular commitment to depth over breadth our students experience the challenge and benefits of considering important and complex questions deeply and reflectively as they connect to their evolving selves. They engage in deep, reflective thought about important questions and perspectives on a daily basis as they go about connecting ideas and conversations in the classroom to "real-world" problems outside.

Those of us who are parents of teenagers, or who elect to teach young people in schools such as ours, will be well-reminded by Pink's thesis that people, including adolescents, have the capacity and inherent desire to create meaning. If we consider the messages of Drive as a lens to look through as we support our students, we may help connect them to a rich opportunity to thrive in the typically turbulent years of adolescence and early adulthood.

Despite my fatigue at the start of the flight, Daniel Pink's simple and powerful ideas engaged me on my journey and have inspired my thinking about several of our practices here at Bay.

Sincerely,
Tim Johnson

The Bay School Community

Dennis Hartzell
Associate Head of School

Morning Meetings: A Defining Tradition at Bay

At 8:10 each weekday morning, the gong sounds in the Great Room and another morning meeting begins, just as hundreds of morning meetings have begun since the school opened in August, 2004. The room always takes a moment or two to settle, as roughly three hundred and twenty people re-connect to a Bay School tradition that has come to define and to reinforce many of our most cherished values. Over the next twenty minutes, we all know to expect a talk (or presentation or performance), a quiet period of reflection or meditation, and a set of announcements. Then we will go about our day, our sense of the strength of this special place affirmed yet again.
Morning Meeting at BAY
Developed initially by Malcolm Manson, our founding head of school, and Teah Strozer, still our chaplain, morning meeting has come to symbolize Bay's commitment to inclusiveness, to access for all, to courageous engagement with challenging or controversial issues, to good-natured spontaneity, and to celebrations of all kinds. We hear about causes from those who are deeply committed to them, and we witness performances of songs and poems, dances and videos. Morning meeting has welcomed the sound of a shofar, the celebration of a Eucharist, and a muezzin's call to daily prayer. There have been sobering presentations on the human consequences of natural disasters, and there have been endless and energetic acknowledgements of birthdays.

On March 19th, I gave a brief talk on one dimension of the school's life that has been particularly meaningful to me: the establishment and evolution of our athletic program. The culture of competitive integrity established by our teams has, from the beginning, shaped the vigorous and robust community that flourishes in this school. By clicking on the link below, you can hear a podcast of that talk.

Academics

Bill Brown
Literature and Humanities Teacher

Sam Green
Class of '11

Tahirih Skolnik
Class of '10

Poetry in the April Air

April's arrival is eagerly awaited each year at Bay, not only as a herald of spring, but because notes of poetry fill the air. Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month celebrates the essential role that poetry plays in American culture. At morning meetings throughout the month students and members of the faculty and staff share their favorite poems, many of which they have written. Book Bridge groups led by librarian Rachel Shaw enjoy poems of different styles and cultures.
Benjy Wachter Poem

On April 20th, junior Benjy Wachter shared the following original poem that he wrote last summer while on a trip to London and read out loud at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. Enjoy!

Poetry's Moral Lessons

In ancient China, men (and only men) could take civil service examinations to move up in society. The chief part of these exams was the study of literature-especially poetry. Successful candidates knew the classic stories and poems. They could also write poems in traditional forms.

One such candidate, who appears in an eighteenth-century Chinese detective novel, Dee Goong An, exclaims, "Your Honor knows that I am a student of literature. How would I ever commit such a heinous crime?" In other words, literature was presumed to provide transformative moral lessons.

In twentieth-century America, William Carlos Williams wrote a poem called Asphodel, That Greeny Flower. People often quote its last lines: "It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there." In other words, poems can reveal moral lessons.

During the middle trimester of this year, Poetry students studied and wrote a variety of poems. Through classroom readings, individual analysis and original composition, they have deepened their understanding of how poems work and what they offer us.

The students each chose one poem that carries an important lesson for the attentive reader. They then composed essays showing how the poem's features reinforce the lesson it offers. The draft of each essay received teacher feedback before the final revision, before being entered in the book created by our class. In the second section of this book, each member of the class contributed an original poem. Below, you will see some of these original poems.

A Rose's Blooming Bud
Sam Green

A rose's blooming bud,
Through hard times perseveres.
This rose seeing the good sheds its thorns.

Allowing bees and flies to land and enjoy its gifts.
For years and years the enlightened flower grows.
The bees and the flies both achieve satisfaction from the enlightened rose.

But then approaches an impending force.

From out of the glassy blue sky come clippers,
Always pursuing destruction,
The clippers approach the rose.

In defense the yellow bees strike and fight
But their stings cannot overcome the clippers.

And the clipper takes its death grip on all that is good
And with just one motion
Ends the beautiful, intricate inviting rose.

Why does it do this?

Because it is its nature.

Bittersweet Connection
Tahirih Skolnik

I walked up those stairs into
The vertical community--so warm.
Inviting, appreciative, thoughtful.

Usually I would sit and wonder
But that time I thought it was real.
Was it too good to be true?

I listen to the one from the Far East
Her soulful words penetrate through
My thoughts—speak my mind.

I want to enjoy her music
But my mind wonders...
Wishing, waiting, wanting.

Nostalgia takes over-
I want to revisit those stairs.
I want to be in that place with thriving minds.

She tells me that I'll know the truth
By the way it feels.
But what is the truth?

I still wonder...
I have yet to feel it.

Karen Hellyer
Digital Arts Teacher

(L to R) Teah Strozer, Bay School Chaplain, Rachel Shaw, Librarian, Jeremy Marshman, School Counselor

Mary Ann Rodgers, Drama Program Director and Spanish Teacher

Ellen Greenblatt, Literature and Writing Teacher

Miles Chen, Physics and
Art Teacher

Craig Butz, Humanities Teacher

Richard Piccioni, Science Teacher

Jean Menapace, Math Teacher

Nic Fiszman, Science Teacher

Vanessa Alfaro, Math Teacher

Snapshots of Intersession 2010

"It was the best year ever!" one student was overheard exclaiming, as his group of fellow adventurers returned exhausted, dirty, and happy from their 3-day Introduction to Backpacking and Wilderness First Aid course during Intersession Week 2010 from March 29th to April 2nd. For students and faculty members alike, Intersession Week is a highpoint of the school year. This year's offerings included twenty-one courses that represented a broad spectrum of interests and activities from arts offerings in music and dance, photography and film, to computer technology, science courses focusing on the ecology of the SF Bay Area, the chemistry of food and constructing a near-space vehicle, to fiction writing and 5 courses involving outdoor and wilderness adventures.
Bay Intersession 2010

Intersession courses take students and teachers out of their classrooms and into the world of real-life learning. In that environment students come to see themselves, their peers, and their teachers differently. Their perspectives broaden as they open them selves to new challenges.

Here a few of the course highlights of Intersession 2010

Exploring Animation
Karen Hellyer, Digital Arts Teacher

Ten students spent Intersession week learning about animation through viewing a wide variety of styles and formats, and then created works of their own. We began our week together by viewing an animation collection that I have developed on YouTube. Stop-motion techniques included selections from old Levi's TV commercials up to more recent Web sites featuring T-SHIRT WAR!! Additional videos included early Pixar works, Disney classics, and shorts from animation film festivals.
Intersession Animation

Students decided early in the week on an idea for a project that they would pursue individually, with partners, or in small groups. Many used digital SLR cameras to take still frames of their subjects moving, and then imported the images into Final Cut Pro and added sound before exporting as small QuickTime videos.

During Intersession week, animation production alternated with off-campus trips and a visit from Steve Segal (http://www.segaltoons.com/) a professional animator. On Tuesday we went to the Inner Mission District to view a screening of obscure animated films custom-curated by Stephen Parr at Oddball Films, (http://www.oddballfilm.com/). For many students, it was the first time they had viewed films that were projected by an actual 16mm movie projector.

On Thursday, we took an amazing trip to the new Walt Disney Family Museum, located in the Presidio near campus in the Main Post. There, students were treated to a short screening in the new Digital Media Lab where animation classes will soon be offered. We were then set free to explore the exhibits which included an audio recording of Walt Disney describing his life, accompanied by animated/framed videos, documents, and artifacts. Among some of our group's favorites were the first drawing of Mickey Mouse, the original multi-plane camera, Disney's train engine, and a scale model of Disneyland designed by the pioneering special effects company Industrial Light & Magic.

On Friday, April 2nd our week ended with a screening of all the finished animation videos that students had produced. It ended up being a good balance between production and appreciation, and most likely will be offered again next year. For people interested in animation throughout the year, Bay has a group called "International Animation Day" that can be joined by logging into the community site.

Peer Resource Program Intersession
Teah Strozer, Bay School Chaplain, Jeremy Marshman, School
Counselor, and Rachel Shaw, Librarian

What happens when eleven Bay students, their school counselor, their Buddhist chaplain, and their librarian go on a 4-day retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains without cell phones, computers, or televisions? MAGIC!

The Peer Resource Training group has been meeting weekly since January so by the time we got to Jikoji Zen Temple and Retreat Center the students were all pretty comfortable with each other. Jikoji's natural and peaceful setting, however, was particularly conducive to deepening the group's bond. Each day was structured around formal periods of meditation and reflection led by Teah and trainings on effective communication, listening, and recognizing emotions led by Jeremy.
Peer Counseling

We ate our meals together in the welcoming dining room with groups of students making dinner for everyone each night. In the evenings we gathered together in the cozy common room keeping the wood burning stove going and doing an activity called Hot Seat. One student commented: "The Hot Seats were a really great part of the Intersession. The natural, peaceful environment gave people an opportunity to share really important and deep things about themselves." One student is the focus of everyone's attention; they are on the Hot Seat. That student offers a few pieces of information about himself/herself by finishing the sentence "If you really knew me...." Each person in the room then has the opportunity to ask the student on the hot seat questions about themselves with the understanding that all information is kept completely confidential and accepted without judgment. This activity in particular allowed everyone in the room to practice the skills they had been cultivating: deep listening, feeling empathy, and reflecting on their own emotions. Jeremy: "It gives teens the chance to do something they love to do: take risks. It benefits them because they become more known by their peers and feel a real sense of freedom when they are able to share who they really are with each other."

Teah says, "Our intersession was more about going deep than having experiences at the surface. It was about being present with openness to each person's story of difficulty and joy. The students learned to listen without judgment. The students learned to empathize with people who had seemed so different."

One student commented: "There wasn't a lot of superficiality in the conversations we were having. It was uncensored, real and serene. We just had meaningful interactions, which isn't always the case in the outside world." Another student commented: "Because we all came to the Intersession with openness and a desire to learn about each other, we developed these really strong bonds. Not all of us were that close coming in and it's not like now we are super best friends, but I see each of the group members as a complete person because I know some of the events they have gone through."

These eleven students have come back to the Bay community having learned how to support each other in a group setting, how to be more comfortable with their emotions and to be present with each other with difficult emotions-all skills that will have lifetime benefits.

Ten Films to See Before You Leave High School
Mary Ann Rodgers, Spanish Teacher and Drama Director
Ellen Greenblatt, Literature and Writing Teacher

Students in the "Ten Films" Intersession class were surprised at the power of these film "classics", many of which they had never heard of, or had dismissed as merely "old". Psycho was a particular favorite (and the shrieks it evoked reverberated through the hall outside the screening room!). As one student noted, "I enjoyed comparing Psycho to modern day horror films and discussing how surprised I was by its depth. Before seeing Psycho I had assumed all 1960's horror movies were simple and corny. I guess before this intersession, I thought all old movies were boring, but the humor in Some Like it Hot and Singing in the Rain definitely proved my original thoughts wrong."

After learning that films made before 1934, when the Code came into effect, were more explicit than films made between 1934 and 1968 when the Code ended, a student noted, "My favorite film of the week was probably Babyface, because it is not often we see female leads in such cut-throat roles. I also enjoyed Casablanca and now have a more thorough understanding of culture during World War II, as well as knowing where some of these cultural references came from." Yet another student commented, "This was absolutely my favorite Intersession in my four years at Bay. I really enjoyed discussing the deeper meanings and themes of all the films. If I had not been in this class I would probably not have experienced Psycho or Casablanca, now two of my favorite movies."
10 Films You must See
Intersession leaders Mary Ann Rodgers and Ellen Greenblatt had a great, though difficult time paring down the screening list to no more than 10 films. A particular highlight of the week came on Friday afternoon when Mary Ann's friend, San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle, joined the group to discuss the films as well as his job as a film reviewer. LaSalle was bowled over by the sophistication of the students' questions and comments and by the films they chose as their own personal favorites.

Films Shown:
Manhattan -1979
The Godfather - 1972
Psycho -1960
Some Like it Hot -1959
Out of the Past -1947
Singing in the Rain -1952
Babyface - 1933
City Lights - 1931
Casablanca - 1942
Citizen Kane - 1941

The Science of Cooking
Miles Chen, Physics and Art Teacher, Gastronome Extraordinaire

The Science of Cooking Intersession explored the many facets of physics, biology and chemistry that are involved with cooking food that tastes good. How much scrambling should be involved with making scrambled eggs? Does the egg taste different if salt is added before or after cooking? What temperature and how old should the egg be before cooking? How much fat should be added to the eggs while cooking? What kind of material makes the best pan for transferring energy to the eggs? All of these questions led to experiments on scrambling eggs during the first day followed by a half a dozen more experiments involving egg preparations. Students made mayonnaise from yellow egg yokes and were befuddled by how store bought mayonnaise is white. By whipping air into egg whites, students learned how to trap the air by varying heating times to make delicious meringue cookies.

Students also learned how to butcher a whole chicken and prepared a pig for roasting which was big hit during lunch the next day. While experimenting with making different pastas from scratch, students explored why different sauces are used to accompany different pasta shapes. The science of cooking good food is also an art. By studying the science involved with cooking food that tastes good, this intersession will have hopefully inspired students to experiment with their own delicious creations.

Near Space Balloon Project
Craig Butz, Humanities Teacher, Richard Piccioni, Science Teacher

During Intersession 2010, a pioneering group of 12 students led by teachers Richard Piccioni and Craig Butz, worked to become one of the few schools to conduct scientific measurements from the edge of outer space. Our mission is to send a weather balloon carrying a payload into the stratosphere, higher than airplanes can fly, to photograph and take measurements from above 99% of the Earth's atmosphere.

During our week together, students broke into teams to design, build, and test the components of the mission: the balloon and parachute, a payload enclosure to protect the equipment from the harsh environment, supplemental battery power for cameras and measurement equipment, and tracking and recovery systems. Once the probe is completed, it will be released for a mission of several hours during which it will transmit positional information so that, after it reaches the balloon's burst altitude and falls back to Earth, we will be able to locate and recover the payload. Stay tuned for the countdown to launch day soon!

Getting In Touch with Our Inner Grandmothers
Chelsea Mattoon '10, Hayley Smith '11, Jean Menapace, Math Teacher

Our Intersession began with Hayley Smith and Chelsea Mattoon envisioning a relaxing week of knitting and cooking. When Jean Menapace heard of the idea, she pictured women of an older generation baking, knitting, and talking, and suggested to us that we would be spending time the way our grandmothers might have in times gone by. As the three of us talked, we got excited about introducing our actual grandmothers to each other, by bringing in pictures of them, telling stories about them, and baking their recipes. As the week of Intersession drew near we had fun brainstorming about lists of ingredients and baking utensils we'd need, and the excitement grew. An email to the school community brought a great response, bags of yarn and knitting needles for us to use.
Getting in touch with the Inner Grandma
Each day began by meeting three of our grandmothers through pictures and stories, and then introducing the day's recipes. We split into groups and got busy baking: measuring, stirring, rolling, from sweet potato soufflé to biscotti to shortbread. We carried trays of unbaked baked goods down to the school kitchen to an enthusiastic welcome from Chello, who put them into the oven for us. Most of our recipes turned out to be delicious, notwithstanding the infamous snickerdoodle incident. Afternoons were devoted to knitting, munching, and conversation, and an occasional board game. As the week went along, we settled into a relaxed rhythm, spending time together as women of earlier generations did. The conversation ranged from college to prom dresses, as our knitted scarves rapidly grew. As Chelsea said, "We loved being able spend quality time with each other while gaining weight."

Green Heroes: Options for a Greener World
Nic Fiszman, Science Teacher, Vanessa Alfaro, Math Teacher

Why did cities originally plan to have parks? Why did we move away from them in the 1960s? Why are we going back to them today? What are the benefits of parks economically, socially, environmentally, and health-wise? What is the state of parks in San Francisco today? These were some of the many questions we asked this year in Green Heroes Intersession class.

This is the 4th year that Green Heroes has been offered. The overarching goals of the course are to develop our students' expertise in safe biking in the city, in doing community service, and in learning about important "green" issues. In the past these have focused on the importance of local and sustainable food production in cities and we provided community service in various community gardens throughout San Francisco. This year, we decided to focus on city parks.
Green Heroes
In the span of five days, we weeded the Oak Woodlands in Golden Gate Park behind the Conservatory, we mulched a 100-year old magnolia tree and cleaned up along the Panhandle between Masonic and Central, and we planted 250 plants at the Golden Gate Park nursery which provides the native plants used in parks and landscapes throughout the City and County of San Francisco. We then volunteered in two community gardens: Hooker Alley Nob Hill Community Garden and the Garden For the Environment. We also learned to bike safely in the city, we learned about bike repair thanks to a workshop at the Sports Basement in the Presidio and we learned how to read maps and navigate our city. We went everywhere by bike: Golden Gate Park, the Richmond, the Sunset, the Mission, downtown, the Embarcadero, SOMA, Diamond Heights, Forest Hill, ...

Incidentally, we also discovered (and experienced) the answer to "why did cities originally plan parks?" After doing 3 hours of community service and 4 hours of biking every single day, we were pretty exhausted! We had rediscovered what "... was anticipated by Frederick Law Olmsted and other 19th-century park visionaries, who gave us New York's Central Park, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and similar grand parks in cities across the nation. They were gardeners and designers—but also preachers for the power of parks, fired from within by the understanding that they were shaping the quality of American lives for generations to come. In the view of these park visionaries, parks were not "amenities." They were necessities, providing recreation, inspiration, and essential respite from the city's blare and bustle [...]" (The Benefits of Parks: Why America Needs More City Parks and Open Space, Paul Sherer, The Trust for Public Land, San Francisco, 2006).

Athletics

Steve Glass
Athletic Director

Stephanie Hamilton
Assistant Athletic Director

The Spring in Sports at Bay

Basketball Update: we are pleased to announce that the Bay School varsity girls' basketball team ended the 2010 season by winning the Bay Counties League-Central championship for the first time in school history! The team entered the playoffs undefeated in season play, defeated SF Waldorf in the semi-finals 56-38, and then advanced to the BCL Central Championship to play against a very strong San Domenico Panthers team, winning the game 54-50.
Cheers to the Bay girls and their outstanding coach Larry Minnich!

We are currently in the middle of a very busy spring sports season. Despite the rainy start, Bay teams battled through the weather and are enjoying successful seasons.

In boys' sports, the Breakers boys' varsity golf team is nearing the close of their season with a record of 5 wins and 3 losses in league competition. They're looking strong and working hard to contend for the league championship at San Geronimo golf course on April 29th. The varsity baseball team is currently 3-2 overall, and is off to a strong start in league play with 2 wins and no losses. Most of the players are new to the baseball program this year and these rookies are showing great promise. The boys' varsity volleyball team is playing its first season as part of the Bay Area Conference. Coach James Scrivano is focused on building the boys' program and reports that the team is working hard to develop a strong squad for the future. Varsity boys' tennis coaches Sean Bertram and Bryan Richter are focused on training a young, enthusiastic boys' tennis team at the varsity level. The boys have experienced a tough season with regard to wins and losses; however, the team remains positive and continues to improve.

In girls' athletics, the varsity soccer team is currently 5 and 5 overall and 5 and 2 in the BCL Central. The girls anticipate a solid finish to the regular season and a strong showing in the BCL Central playoffs. The girls JV soccer team is enjoying their best season ever with 3 wins 3 loses and 1 tie. On the softball field the varsity team is working hard with an overall record of 3-4 and looking forward to the league playoffs in mid-May.

The Bay School varsity track and field team is heading into the 3rd meet of the season on Saturday, April 17th. Although the team is small, they have made quite an impression in our league with solid finishes in the sprints and middle distances at the first two meets at San Francisco State. Our girls relay team came in first place in their heat at the first meet and beat their time at meet #2. With two meets to go, our Breaker runners are working hard to improve and earn personal bests by the end of the season.

GO BREAKERS!!

News & Events

Organ Transplantation and the Ethical Questions Involved

On March 23rd the Bay School community came together for a very moving presentation given by film director, producer, and activist James Redford who discussed the subject of organ transplantation and donation. Currently, more than one hundred thousand people in the U.S. are waiting for an organ transplant. In 2009, more than 28,000 lives were saved through organ donations.

The topic is a very personal one for James Redford, who himself was the recipient of a liver transplant fifteen years ago after waiting 6 months for the liver that saved his life. His own experience motivated him to make organ donation a life passion and he went on to found the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness (JRI), a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the need for organ and tissue donation. "Our goal is to use the power of media to inspire people to think about organ donation on a deeper level. A lot of people think it's a moral obligation to be an organ donor....Knowing the process and knowing donor families as I do, I think it is an extraordinary gift. The way to create more organ donors is to inspire them to embrace it." Mr. Redford screened a segment of his award-winning film titled: The Kindness of Strangers that featured the experiences of those waiting for a transplant and families who had chosen to donate the organ of a loved one. Following the film there was time for questions. Mr. Redford encouraged Bay students to step up and be active and involved in issues and causes that they care about.

Following Mr. Redford, Bay School student Kevin Charette ('11) explained the science of organ transplantation, and Dr. Katrina Bramstedt, one of the world's few transplant ethicists, who works as an ethics consultant to the California Transplant Donor Network in the San Francisco Bay area, discussed many of the ethical dilemmas and complex situations that can arise during transplant and organ donation.

2010 Spring Musical - The Wiz The Bay School Great Room Theater rocked on March 11th-14th during the 4 performance run of The Wiz, the 1975 Tony Award winning African American adaptation of L. Frank Baum's original book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The soulful score and lyrics by Charlie Smalls provided quite a beat and the audience swung along with Dorothy (Katie Yielding), Scarecrow (Zoe Pressman), Lion (Allison Cleary), and Tinman, (Daniel Stuff) as they danced down the yellow brick road to the catchy tune "Ease On Down the Road".
The Wiz at BAY

The Wiz Photos | Click any icon to launch Viewer

The seventeen member cast, the largest in the school's history, was accompanied by a ten-piece student orchestra conducted by Colin Williams. Resounding applause went to director Katherine Riley, choreographer Paula Plessas, vocal coach Linda Liebschutz, and the many students and parents on the stage, lighting, tech, and production crews.

Coming Up on the Bay School Stage:

The Importance of Being Earnest, May 20-22.
Order tickets at: tickets@bayschoolsf.org beginning May 1.

News from the Admission Office

We are extremely gratified to be welcoming a full and diverse freshman class this fall. Application numbers once again increased this year, and the caliber of academic talent among profiles continues to observably rise.

The freshman Class of 2014 hails from thirty-six different private and public middle schools, with more than thirty-two percent of its students identifying as people of color. Among this impressive group of folks are accomplished skiers, published poets, trapeze artists, filmmakers and ballet dancers. We are proud to call these students ours, and look forward to witnessing their journey of growth at Bay during the next four years. Thanks to all in our community—parents, trustees, Bay School students, faculty and staff—who helped to bring this class together.

Our chance to welcome the class of 2014 as they assemble for the first time will be at our Freshman Welcome Event on Saturday, May 15th. We look forward to having our students meet one another, as well as many upperclassmen and teachers, while enjoying a delicious barbeque and get-to-know-you activities. Hope to see you there!

Happy spring,

Annie Tsang
Director of Admission

Fond Farewells

Along with the excitement and anticipation of graduation coming in early June, we also begin to think about bidding adieu to 3 esteemed members of the Bay School faculty and staff who will be leaving Bay at the end of this school year to begin new phases in their lives.

Andy Shaw

Andy joined the Bay faculty in the school's second year. It is hard to adequately describe the scope and quality of the contribution that Andy has made to the BAY school. He played a major role in developing the curriculum of a variety of courses within our distinctive math program (Math 1, 2, and 3; Analysis of Functions; Game Theory; and Independent Research in Mathematics). Andy has also been instrumental in developing and improving many of our math assessment methods, including the end-of-course capstone projects and our class participation rubrics. He was one of the founders of our active Outing Club, leading numerous popular outdoor trips for students. Andy has also served as Sophomore Class Dean this year, contributing to the work of the Student Support Team and the development of our co-curricular program. The tables have turned and Andy will be going back to school next year, enrolling in the Master's program in Private School Leadership at Columbia University's Teacher College. Everyone at Bay will miss Andy's intelligence, good humor, generosity and dedication to all things Bay.

Ana Barrios

Ana joined the Bay School faculty in 2008 and during the past two years she has made a significant contribution to the world languages discipline team and to the school community in general. We have been impressed by her eagerness to collaborate with colleagues and engage in professional development activities. In addition to her teaching, Ana has been a supportive advisor to students and she has contributed to the life of the school in other ways, particularly in our after school physical activities program and through sharing her knowledge of Non-Violent Communication with colleagues and students. We are grateful for what she has brought to Bay and we wish her the best in her future endeavors.

Adam Blum

Adam has served as director of development for the past four years and in that capacity has excelled at building relationships between the school's many constituencies, both external and internal, as well as achieving remarkable success in fundraising. He has guided and supported the growth of Bay's cohesive Parent Association, and organized and hosted the many annual community events that are the foundation of the school's closely-knit community. The great success of each year's annual fund and the Campaign for Bay are a reflection of his hard work and dedication. Adam is leaving Bay to devote himself full-time to his counseling practice. He will be deeply missed.

We also want to thank Nettie Kelly and Carl Horwitz for stepping in so ably as long-term substitutes this year. Both are highly competent professionals and we are grateful to them for making the change seamless for the students and for their contributions to our faculty.

Bay Honors

Bay Honors
Congratulations to the following members of the Bay School community for their recent achievements and accolades:

Ariella Mostov ('11) presented a paper titled: So this is life: Queer Fiction in a Joint Session, Queer Studies and Jewish Studies: Gender Fluidity Breaking the Stagnant Binary, at the American Academy of Religion, Western Regional meeting at Arizona State University, Tempe Arizona, on March 15th. Ariella also wrote an article titled: Youth and Horses that was recently published in the Volume VIII 2010 issue of the magazine The P.R.E Horse describing her close relationship with her Pure Spanish Horse named Zamarra.

Kevin Charette ('11) has been awarded a summer research internship by The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease's STEP-UP Program, designed to provide short-term research education for high school students to expose them to research in areas of diabetes, endocrinology, metabolism, nutrition, obesity, digestive, liver, urologic, kidney and hematologic diseases.

Harry Sherman ('13) was featured in a video segment broadcast on NBC television during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games that highlighted his dedication to training for the sport of competitive snowboarding and bordercross. During a recent morning meeting Harry spoke about the importance of balancing his commitment to high academic standards with his passion for boarding. View Harry's spot on You Tube.

Bay School learning specialist Dr. Charles Roth will participate in a panel discussion titled: The View from High School: Perspectives on Students with Learning and Attention Differences, sponsored by the Parent Education Network on Friday, May 14th at the Exploratorium. Topics will include the challenges faced by ninth graders with learning differences such as accommodations and learning strategies, assistive technologies, and the role of parents.

Students in Ana Bayat's combined Spanish IV and V class have posted their reviews online of the novel El Principe de la Niebla by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The class syllabus includes the careful study of language, literature, and a hands-on radio project. The deliverable for the reading and analysis of El Principe de la Niebla was to write a book review and publish it online.

April - June Events Calendar

Saturday, April 24th	Bay Splash, 5-10:30pm on campus.
Friday, April 30th	Faculty work day, no classes.
Sunday, May 2nd	Eco Concert on campus, 5:30pm..
Saturday, May 8th	Junior-Senior Prom.
Saturday, May 15th	New student welcome event on campus.
Thursday, May 20th - Saturday, May 22nd	Spring Play on campus..
Thursday, May 27th	Athletic Night on campus
Monday, May 31st	Memorial Day, no school.
Thursday, June 3rd	Senior Projects Exhibition, 5-7:30pm on campus.
Thursday, June 10th	Last day of classes. Talent show 4-7pm on campus. Students only.
Friday, June 11th	Class of 2010 graduation ceremony At Herbst Theater, 10-11:30am.