Island Heat – The Making of Polynesia

Instructors: Will Gray and Karen Mattick

From the fierce eruptions of volcanic pressure to the fierce eruptions of passion and war, this class gave an overview of the natural history of the Pacific islands and the cultures formed there. Topics included:

• Formations of stone – geology, art and warfare
• Community Life – the culture of sharing, borrowing, stealing and warfare
• Rock fever – the need for travel and navigation and warfare
• Passionate expression – the art of storytelling, tattoo, and dance including war dances

Marvelous Masks

Instructors: Allan Batchelder and Jennifer Silvernale

Allan and Jen led an adventurous journey into the world of mask making! Students explored the process of designing, casting, molding, and decorating masks, as well as the use of masks as a tool for character development in theatrical performance.

What will a mask allow you to become onstage when your identity is disguised? How have masks been used historically and within cultural traditions? All member of the masked troop were required to attend class in clothes that could get dirty, bring an old towel from home that could get stained, and bring soap to clean up with at the end of class each day. Students delved into discovery as they used their new masks in short performances to demonstrate their effectiveness. Participants fed their creative cravings and let loose their acting passions behind their outer masks!

Winter Expressions – Photography & Music Composition

Instructors: Gary Perless & Rick Hauptman

Winter Expressions: a creative workshop of photography and music, inspired by Nature.

In this program, students explored the creative process, from inspiration to final product. Each day during Jan Term they went outdoors to experience Winter--usually on campus, plus weekly field trips to inspiring places (snowshoeing in the mountains, wilderness trail, or a visit to the city).  Students used photography to capture their experiences and the moods of Nature, learning basic digital photography skills including composition, lighting, depth of field, artistic effect, symmetry and the effect of distractions. Participants also learned the components of their cameras and how to properly adjust resolution and settings. Back at school, they sorted through their photographs and selected the best, learning from their successes and failures.

Then, inspired by these images and their personal experiences, students experimented with expressing themselves through words and/or melodies, taking creative risks as they composed original songs around the theme of Winter. At the end of Jan Term, they recorded these songs and shared them in the final presentation:  a multimedia show about Winter integrating images, words, and music inspired by their personal experiences.

Students were coached to work collaboratively as they created and reflected on their photographs, and as they composed and recorded their own original songs. Some students had previous musical or photography experience, but all that was really required was an interest in music and creativity.  The class explored different forms and genres of music, becoming more familiar with musical instruments and the elements that make up music (rhythm, tempo, melody, etc.)

Patterns & Puzzles

Instructors: Kim Uyyek and Sharon Moncada

“Mathematics is looking for patterns.”

- Richard Feynman, American Physicist and Nobel Laureate

Kim and Sharon led an exploration of mathematics as a study of patterns and relationships, as a form of art, a way of thinking and a lot of fun. Everyone got a chance to play with Pythagoras, try out tessellations, and be enthralled with Escher.

Students traveled the world examining symmetry in Islamic art from the Middle East, the Alhambra in Spain, Oriental carpets from Asia, Arabic tiles from northern Africa and Celtic Knot designs from Great Britain.  Everyone in the class learned about Fibonacci, Origami, polyhedral, kaleidoscopes and jigsaw puzzles. Field trips were incorporated into this Jan Term to explore the puzzles and patterns of our community.

Chorus & Dance

Instructors: Amber Haugen and Laurie Dunston

The curtain is rising. The spotlights are lit. Costumes are hanging. Orchestra is tuning. Are you ready? Are you ready to step onto the stage? Do you wonder how the cast of Glee does its magic each week? WSA students with these questions spent their January term exploring the basics of song and dance. They learned:

• Beginning techniques in movement and breathing
• Choreography of a piece to live music
• Preparation of dance and choral performances
• Specialized theatre and performing arts vocabulary
• Assembly of costumes & learn to use the costume to enhance rather than overwhelm performance
• Collaboration with your schoolmates to create a showcase
• Recognition of the historical significance of a specific period in art

All students participated in both dancing and chorus.

Music Ensemble

Instructor - Paul Burback

Paul Burback offered a music class during Jan term again this year. Students taking this class all had intermediate to advanced experience on at least one instrument. Being able to read music was not mandatory.

The class worked together as an ensemble. The students were actively involved in putting together a concert for their final performance. The final performance included an eclectic mix of styles of music. The students were actively involved in coming up with the material as well as how it was arranged. Genres included World music, Classical, Gypsy Jazz, Rock, Movie and video game themes and much more. Paul's wife, Justine Jeanotte, lent a hand with arranging and conducting the string instruments (violin, cello, etc).

In addition to the ensemble this year, some of the Jan term music class students spent time working with Gary Perless and his Winter Expressions class to write and record some original music for those students’ final presentation.

Additional programs

All Jan Term groups rotated into one of these two workshops every other day. The workshop time were monitored by a teacher and students were expected to utilize the time wisely. Upper School students not participating in the NHD contest had additional activities presented to them while their Jan Term classmates work on NHD.  In addition to participating in Jan Term, our juniors and seniors are engaged in class work required for IB Higher Level classes.

National History Day Work Period:

Jan Term provides guided sessions to ready students for the National History Day Competition. All middle school students work on transforming their completed research papers into entries to the Regional National History Day contest, which occurs in March. Students learn the rules for each category, do additional research and mock up their entries during Jan Term. The 9^th and 10^th grade students have the choice of preparing a NHD entry or writing a research paper analyzing one or two of the films they are seeing in the History of Film Seminar.

History of Film Seminar

A film festival has become a tradition of Jan Term and this year the theme was The History of Film. This seminar acknowledges the power of visual media and provides a selected series of films of note. The films show a progression in technical complexity, as well as increasing depth of story line. The seminars provide an opportunity to discuss and analyze film as a means of communicating content.