Newsletter Archive
School Bulletin for the Week of June 6, 2007
college bound
Our Senior Class has nearly completed making their decisions for the path their lives will be taking in the next school year. Here's a look at what everyone will be doing come next September:
•John Balke is considering taking a gap year or joining the military.
•Max Blackstone is in the process of auditioning for drama programs.
•Kharis Calvert is taking a gap year.
•Jonathan Chandler will be attending DePaul University.
•Moriah Cummings will be attending the University of Vermont.
•Dontera Evans will be attending the University of Vermont.
•Lizzie Flood will be taking classes at Oakton Community College.
•Camille Gregory will be attending Columbia College of Chicago.
•Kathy Hlavac will be attending the Savannah College of Art & Design.
•Adriana Kondrat will be attending Illinois Institute of Technology.
•Lukas Kucinski will be attending Whitman College.
•Jules Lazar will be attending the School of Representational Art.
•John McGillicuddy will be attending Occidental College.
•Rachael Morkunas will be attending Warren Wilson College.
•Caitlin Ragan will be attending Franklin College — Switzerland.
•Dennis Robles is in the process of applying to Northeastern and North Park Universities.
•Kiah Shapiro will be attending California Lutheran University.
•Clairellyn Smith will be attending Earlham College.
•John Charles Sokolow is weighing offers from the Universities of Iowa and Nebraska.
•Rosanna Stewart will be attending Kalamazoo College.
•Catalina Vaca will be attending College of Santa Fe.
•Christine Winter is weighing offers from Knox College and Columbia College of Chicago.
Congratulations, Seniors, and best of luck to all of you next year and into the future!
-Sheree Moratto, College Counselor
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annual fund update
Congratulations to Cynthia Trevillion's 8th grade class and Laura Donkel's EC class for reaching 100% and 95% Annual Fund participation, respectively — terrific achievements and a collective sign of support for both the teachers and the school.
With just three weeks remaining, the Annual Fund has raised approximately $251,000 in gifts and pledges. Participation has also been robust — see individual class stats. Overall, parent participation is now at 75%.
At the close of the campaign on June 30th, I will send all parents a wrap up letter with final results of our fundraising efforts. If you haven’t yet participated, there’s still time! Contact Andrea Ragan at 773.828.8456.
Finally, thank you, parents, for your support of this program and for all the many ways you contribute to the school.
Early Childhood:
EC Matson - 73%
EC Donkel - 95%
EC Hart - 70%
EC Bruck - 55%
EC Culbert - 58%
Grade School:
1st grade - 83%
2nd grade - 81%
3rd grade - 80%
4th grade - 65%
5th grade - 56%
6th grade - 53%
7th grade - 71%
8th grade - 100%
High School:
9th grade - 72%
10th grade - 76%
11th grade - 87%
12th grade - 73%
-Andrea Ragan, Dir, Annual Fund & Alumni Relations
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leadership model
As a follow up to Monday night’s All School Meeting, working copies of the work of the Governance Group are available for any parent interested in obtaining a copy. Please come to the Main Office to pick up the materials.
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cancellation
Due to low enrollment numbers, we have unfortunately had to cancel the Music Camp scheduled for June 18-22. If you are still interested in working with instructors Jenny West or Cydne Gillard over the summer, please contact Jenny at 978.471.9157. There is still room available in our Summer Camp for 5-12 year olds lead by Ileana Valencia. Spots are filling quickly, so make sure to turn in your registration form asap!
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loop the loop!
The CWS yearbook, The Loop, has arrived and is available in the Main Office for pick up for those who had the foresight to pre-order. Procrastinators can still purchase them for $45 in the Main Office.
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deep gratitude
Our school is built on the bedrock of support from parent volunteers. Without our wonderful volunteers, community events simply could not succeed and many programs would not thrive. Most of us gladly serve our shifts at the Holiday Fair and help our class teachers whenever they ask. But we all know there are a few parents in our community who go beyond expectations, who commit hours and hours to making things work. This spring, one of these volunteer warriors graduates her daughter from the high school and deserves acknowledgement for her many years of service.
Many of you know Deb Gohr as the keeper of the camping equipment, the woman who makes class trips possible by providing room parents with tents and stoves. Perhaps you didn’t know that for years she housed the equipment in her own garage, cleaning and accounting for the school’s gear year after year. Additionally, Deb has chaired Holiday Fairs, coordinated auction set ups, and constructed countless craft projects. The list of her volunteer work could go on and on. She’s a one-woman crew who makes the most daunting tasks surmountable. We owe her a collective thank you for her innumerable contributions to CWS.
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therapeutic eurythmy
I want to thank you, dear parents, for supporting the therapeutic eurythmy program this year. It was a joy to work with you and your children.
As the therapeutic eurythmy program continues in the 2007-2008 school year, I highly encourage you to call me during the summer to book your child for sessions next year. These places fill up quickly and for some of your children it would be helpful to start in the second week of school. Please contact me at 773.728.5282.
-Susanne Zipperlen, Therapeutic Eurythmist
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yearbook errata
The yearbook staff extends our deepest apologies to Ro Hart and the parents in EC Hart for the omission of some of your class' student portraits. If you were affected by this oversight and have already purchased a yearbook, please let Kristin (Main office) or Tiffany (high school office#041; know, and we will issue you a full refund. If you did not preorder but would still like to have a yearbook, please see Kristin Pellicori in the Main Office for a free copy.
In the meantime, we are in conversation with our yearbook company Jostens to see whether it is possible to print an addendum that will include the full class.
-Tiffany Ying, Yearbook Advisor
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driving for dollars
There is still time for parents to apply for Transportation Reimbursement from the State of Illinois to offset some of the cost of driving your student(s) to school. To qualify, you must live over 1.5 miles from school. This program has been in effect for some time and CWS parents have taken advantage of the program in the past. To apply, parents must submit claim information (social security number and claim amount or distance from home to CWS) to the Main Office. Then we transmit it electronically to the State Board of Education. We suggest that parents interested in applying for the reimbursement come to the Main Office to verify eligibility; the deadline is June 30th.
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special report — pentathlon 2007
On May 14, 2007 the 5th grade boarded a bus and drove off for the time of every Waldorf 5th grader's life: the Greek Pentathlon! We participated along with the Four Winds, Prairie Hill, Singing Winds, Tamarack Community and Water’s Edge schools. As soon as we arrived, the ice broke and almost everybody met each other and became close. After meeting, we divided into our five city-states: Athens, Corinth, Ithaca, Sparta and Olympia. The kids varied from every type of personality — from mean to nice, from fun to annoying, from talkative to shy. This was truly an experience!
Once we got there, we were presented with our city-state t-shirts. Then we ate lunch. After lunch, we set out for the field where all the events were being held. Each city-state started with one of the events. Athens started with discus, Corinth with javelin, Ithaca with long-jump, Olympia with wrestling and Sparta with the 40-yd dash.
The first day we were judged purely on beauty. The hardest event was the javelin because there were fierce winds and the ground was solid so it was difficult for the javelins to stick.
The second day there was pouring rain as Zeus and Athena came out to welcome us to the events; they were actually two 16 year
olds freezing to death in togas! Your 5th grade opened the ceremony with the Ode to Zeus performed in eurythmy. Then the
games began.
In the 40-yd dash, the finalists from each of the five city-states had a final round in front of the cabins. Three of the five finalists were from the Chicago Waldorf School — Grant Foudree, William Gold and Jeremy Marder. The truth laurel
for running went to William Gold.
The suspense was great as the pentathletes and their parents waited for the beauty laurels to be awarded. Twenty-five
beauty laurels would be handed out to the athletes — five to each city-state. Either this year's 5th grade class
is full of good athletes or we were just plain lucky because 9 beauty laurels were given out to the Chicago Waldorf School.
Greek folk music and dancing accompanied the Greek feast that followed. There was lots of yummy Greek food to eat. City-states sat together so that the parents could talk about whatever parents talk about.
The following morning, truth and goodness laurels were awarded. Hugh Ferguson and William Gold won truth laurels and Jeremy Marder won a goodness laurel. That’s a total of 12 laurels for CWS! Hand-carved participation medals were awarded to everyone. Right before lunch, a wild frenzy broke out. All of the kids were running around signing each other’s city-state shirts, exchanging phone numbers and email addresses to keep in touch with all the new friends they had made. After lunch all the last minute goodbyes were said and we got back onto our bus and drove the 3 hours back home. We bet all the 5th graders went straight home and slept. Then they probably all got up to eat to sleep. Oh boy, what a Pentathlon!
Laurel recipients from CWS included: Talia Adams, Jojo Cottle, Hugh Ferguson, William Gold, Alex Peifer, Merci Randolph, Linnea Scott and Ryan Thomas.
-Jojo Cottle, Adele Erickson, Rebecca Lavin-Burgher, Maddie Oswald-Dieterle, Alex Peifer & Merci Randolph for the Class of 2014
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high school news
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summer reading list
High school families: Watch for your students to bring home the summer book and Summer Reading List this week. This
summer, all high school students and faculty will read the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. In addition, all incoming freshmen and sophomores will read two books from the reading list and all incoming juniors and seniors will read three books from the list. Students will be given a copy of A Long Way Gone, and an additional copy of the reading list will be sent out with the final evaluations.
If any non-high school families would like a copy of the reading list, Barbara Huckabay will happily give you one. We also may have a few extra copies of A Long Way Gone at the bargain price of $12.10.
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news you can use
headline of the week:
According to an article in last week's Chicago Tribune, about 40% of 3-month-old babies watch tv or videos for an average of 45 minutes PER DAY! But what really troubles researchers is the reasons that parents give. About 30% of parents thought that tv was good for their infant’s brain. Wrong, say researchers: “Such early exposure to screens can have a have a negative impact on an infant’s rapidly developing brain and put children at a higher risk for attention problems, diminished reading comprehension and obesity.”
Another 23% allowed tv-watching because “he⁄she really enjoys” it. Wrong again, say researchers. An infant's attention to the screen is a primitive reflex, not learning or attention. “: 'Yes, the baby is staring at the screen, but it's wrong to think the child likes it.' [Dimitri] Christakis said. 'He or she has no choice in the matter. He's hard-wired to pay attention to anything that is fast moving, brightly colored or loud.' ”
Source: Study Finds Heavy TV Viewing By Babies, Chicago Tribune, May 29, page 3.
Let's give a big thank you to our Waldorf teachers for giving us a correct understanding of media.
Thanks to Judy Lubin for submitting this article.
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community announcements
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sketchbook '07
CWS parent, Isabel Liss, will be appearing in a piece in Program B of Collaboration's Sketchbook '07 at the Steppenwolf Garage. This wonderful short (approximately 15 minute) piece is entitled Szinhaz, written by Itmar Moses, directed by Jeremy Wechsler and featuring Steve Pickering and Isabel Liss. For more about the Sketchbook series visit Collaboraction (click on Sketchbook) or visit Steppenwolf Theater website.
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navaho weaver
Annie Kahn, Navaho weaver and medicine woman, will be the guest of honor at a gathering in Gilson Park Pavilion in Wilmette at 7:00pm on July 23, 2007. Proceeds will go to Daughters of Navaho Weavers, a non-profit organization created by Annie to teach the traditional practices that have sustained the Dine (or Navaho#041; throughout time. All are welcome to attend this important event. For more information go to echovalleyhope.org or call Jan Kenyon at 847.835.7445.
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classified ads
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LOST!! On Thursday, May 15th, in the second row of the auditorium, middle section, during Peter Pan. I lost my olive green corduroy jean-style Levi jacket. If by chance you found it, please please return it! Please call Pam at 773.274.0415. Thanks so much!
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Learn to Sing! Summer special on voice lessons from CWS vocal music director, Jeff Spade. Ages 9 — 99. Flexible hours. No previous experience necessary#033; All levels of ability welcome. Contact Jeff Spade.
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Family of 5 from MA planning to visit Waldorf friends in Chicago August 2-8 and looking for house⁄condo to rent for all or part of that time. Pet⁄house sitting or some type of trade would be great. Call Jessica at 773.575.6215.
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Treadmill Wanted: Please call 847.733.9839. I can pick it up and take that thing out of your space forever!
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CWS music teacher Cydne Gillard is available to give lessons in flute, recorder, bassoon, oboe and⁄or music theory over the summer in her home in Evanston. Call 847.917.0469.
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Home for Sale: Light-filled 4BR home on beautiful brick street in Evanston. Eco-friendly finishes throughout. Child's room lazure painted by John Stolfo. Charming, enclosed backyard, fully landscaped. 15 minutes from CWS. Bike ride to lake, walk to el train and Metra. Asking $635k negotiable. Call Lorelei Atwood 847.563.8384.
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Let Your Children Discover Nature right outside their door! We invite you to be our neighbor this summer and live in a completely equipped 3BR log home, a few steps from a quiet lake, surrounded by pine forest. Hike, swim, canoe, fish; see beaver, heron, deer, eagle; hear loon. Near Gaylord, MI. $475/week. Call Rokko Jans 773.588.0052.
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Occasional Part-Time Summer Help Wanted with sorting, tossing, organizing (etc.) home. Responsible high schooler would be fine. Call Vivien at 847.673.4344.
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2 BR 2 Bath Condo for Sale: Split bedroom floor plan, covered parking. In-unit laundry, large rooms and large organized closets. Great location! 5400 N Sheridan Rd, top floor. Near the lake and public transportation (Berwyn red line, 151, 136, 144, 146 & 147 Express bus to downtown). Walking distance to Andersonville and shopping. Asking price: $242,000. Interested please contact: Camilla Hawk at 312.397.3073.
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Lake Shore Day Camp! Camp runs Monday-Friday from 9am-2pm June 18-June 29 in Evanston. For incoming 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. $180. For more info call Simone Lazar at 847.208.1358 or email Simone Lazar.
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Current CWS strings specialist, Jenny West, will be offering violin and bass lessons this summer. Lessons are open to children and adults. If interested please contact Ms. West at 773.685.9567.
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