Sessions 3–5, 2016

Passing
Sessions 3–5, 2016
oo Exploratory Science: Studying
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TO TLY
EC
DIR THAT
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the Grand Canyon (In Person!)
oo Middle Schoolers at Work in the City
oo Upper School Internship Spotlight
oo A Parkmont Evening of Poetry
at Busboys and Poets
oo Parkmont’s Poetry Festival!
oo Parkmont Spirit Week!
oo Preparing for College:
Parkmont’s College Night
oo What’s Our Next Adventure?
oo Our Interdisciplinary Approach
to “Main Lessons”
oo The Middle School Ski Trip
oo Shredding the POW-POW
oo A Note about Spring Parent Conferences
Alexis Jackson and Victory Nnam
relax after lunch at the Desert View
Lookout Point in Arizona.
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Enrollment forms
for 2016-17 are
now available at
Parkmont.org.
Click here!
Exploratory Science: Studying the
Grand Canyon (In Person!)
This spring, Alex Jennison offered a very hands-on science course in the Upper
School called The Grand Canyon: A Natural Wonder of the World. At the conclusion
of the session, students in this geology and history course went to the Grand Canyon
and neighboring parks for an eight day excursion through the slot canyons, deserts,
and mountains of the American southwest.
The trip, led by Alex Jennison and co-chaperoned by Matthew McClain, was our
second journey to the canyon in three years. Students spent seven weeks learning
about the Grand Canyon and then departed for the southwest. We spent our first
evening of the trip at the beautiful Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area,
where we scampered around the rocks and watched the sunset paint the canyon
red. Later that night, we built a fire and watched for shooting stars while the
students made s’mores and the teachers told scary stories. We woke up the next
morning early, still on East Coast time, and started our drive to Flagstaff, Arizona,
where we’d spend the next two days. We stopped outside Las Vegas at the historic
Check out our
weekly blog on
happenings at
Parkmont School!
Visit our
homepage at
www.parkmont.org.
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Hoover Dam, where students quizzed our tour guide and we learned about the
history of dams in the Southwest and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. After lunch,
we continued our drive into Flagstaff, checked into our hotel, and darted down
to Sedona through the scenic Oak Creek Canyon, where we watched a panoramic
sunset from the overlook on Airport Drive. Day three we woke up early for a bit
of caving, led by our experienced guide Alex. Afterwards, we ventured back to
Sedona for one of our favorite hikes of the trip: Devil’s Bridge Trail. The four mile
hike was strenuous but produced one of the best views (and pictures) of the trip.
We spent the next two days in and around the Grand Canyon—we arrived just
as the sun was setting for the most beautiful introduction to the canyon that we
could imagine. We spent our time there hiking the Bright Angel Trail, horseback
riding outside the park, and eating the best breakfast in the country (with Ron
and Holly) at the famous El-Tovar hotel.
In the following days, we visited Page, Arizona, where we toured the remarkable
Antelope Slot Canyon and watched the sunset over Horseshoe Bend, and travelled
to Zion National Park. These final days were filled with hiking and picturesque
views—at this point our team was working together seamlessly, and we knew our
limitations on the trail. Final hikes included the Red Mountain Trail (recommended
via Facebook by some of our favorite Parkmont parents), as well as the Riverside
Walk and Canyon Overlook Trails in Zion.
Our main goal as a group in Arizona was to
create a positive learning experience through
a focus on these values: positivity, unity, and
awareness. At the end of each day, after completing
our Rose and Thorn exercise (personal highlights
and challenges), students gave shout outs to their
classmates and teachers for exhibiting these
mantras in our daily activities. We are so proud
of the growth each student experienced on this
trip—it has been one of the best groups we’ve had
and we were glad to see everyone get so much out
of the experience.
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Scrapbook
Studying the Grand Canyon
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Scrapbook
Studying the Grand Canyon
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Middle Schoolers at Work in the City
Check out our
weekly blog on
happenings
at Parkmont School!
Visit our
homepage at
www.parkmont.org.
Every spring, our middle school students venture out into the world as part of
our internship program. On Wednesday afternoons, students leave on a half day
schedule and spend the afternoon at their internship sites. Over the years, we’ve
established strong ties to a number of local businesses, and our internship program
offers a unique experience for younger students, who often have not had any
experience in the workplace. This year, students worked at a variety of individual
sites—including pet stores (Big Bad Woof, Wagtime), bike shops (Takoma Bicycle),
theaters (Highwood Theater), clothing boutiques (Amano), and gardens (Gingko
Gardens). We also have a small internship group consisting of seven middle school
students, who worked in
three-week stints at a
number of historic DC
locations. So far, we’ve
worked with Earth
Conservation Corps
and Artwerks to design
art installations for the
Anacostia River Festival,
we’ve done food prep with
the wonderful people at
DC Central Kitchen, and
we are just beginning
to work with DC Parks
and People, working on
gardening, beautification
and trash removal.
Nadya and Soliyana share
a smile while working
on sock flags at the Earth
Conservations Corps
and Artwerks at their
beautiful location on
the Anacostia River.
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Upper School Internship Spotlight
by Joseph Doyle, 10th grade
This year, 10th grader Joseph Doyle scored both a fall and spring internship
that turned out to be a perfect “fit.” Below, he discusses each experience.
In the fall, I was at Old City Farm and Guild, a plant store near the Shaw
Howard University metro station, located on an abandoned school lot.
Old City’s mission is to bring fresh food and plants to the Shaw metro
area. They use their space for educational activities that revolve around
gardening, nutrition, and environmental information. During my shifts
I would: water plants, weed the farm area, plant, turn compost, and help
with general store management. Around Halloween, I decorated the store
with cobwebs and other decorations. Around late November and midDecember, Old City Farm and Guild gets a large shipment of Christmas
Trees. I would help sell the trees and tie them to cars. My time there went by fast.
To help support the store, my family and I bought plants for the garden at our
vacation house. Everyone that I worked with was super friendly and I didn’t feel
like an intern. I felt like I was part of the staff team there.
My current internship is Street Sense, a non-profit organization whose mission
is to bring awareness to homelessness and people living on the margins. Street
Sense produces a street newspaper, podcast episodes, classes, teaching seminars,
theatre and a writers group. Its newspaper vendors are homeless. They buy the
papers from the company for fifty cents and sell them for two dollars.
The vendors are independent contractors so they keep the profit. At
Street Sense, I edit articles, post content on and help manage the website,
transcribe podcasts, and work on issuu and photoshop. Street Sense
has only five paid staff. Most of the people that work with Street Sense
are vendors, interns, or volunteers. Street Sense opened my eyes to a
whole new world of people’s struggles. I barely knew anything about
homelessness before. During my shift I talk to the various vendors who
come into the office and a lot of them will tell me their story. From
listening to podcasts, I have heard many other stories of homelessness
and living on the margins.
Above: Getting dirty at
Old City Farm and Guild.
Below: Editing at
Street Sense.
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A Parkmont Evening of Poetry at Busboys and Poets
Enrollment forms
for 2016-17 are
now available at
Parkmont.org.
Click here!
On March 3, at the Busboys and Poets on 5th Street, The Parkmont Poetry Festival
hosted a fundraising event that honored some of our former judges and raised
money for the Poetry Festival.
The night was festive and literary. Six of our former judges each read one of
their own poems, and one by a former Parkmont Poetry Festival student winner.
The poetry that was shared was inspiring, impactful, thought-provoking, and
humorous. The five-minute Parkmont Poetry Festival film was premiered, and it
brought down the house. We had delicious food, drink, and mingled with fellow
poetry lovers and supporters of Parkmont School.
The event raised $9,000 for the Parkmont Poetry Festival, which honors 40
winning student poets in grades 6-12 from across all 8 wards of Washington, D.C.
We are grateful to our Advisory Committee for both hosting the event, and for
their financial and moral support: Jacqui Michel and David Weisman, Ann and
Fred Woodworth, Judy Lentz, and Jean and Paul Gurman. Thanks so much to
all who attended!
Learn more about the Parkmont Poetry Festival at www.parkmontpoetry.org.
Parkmont’s Poetry Festival!
This year the Parkmont Poetry Festival is 34 years young! Our annual Reading
took place on April 30, in the Quaker Meeting Room at Sidwell Friends School,
where forty finalists — 20 from DC middle schools and 20 from DC upper schools
— made their individual public, private or charter schools proud. Three Parkmont
finalists joined poets from Charles Hart, Thurgood Marshall, Somerset PCS,
Capital City PCS, Gonzaga, Saint Albans, National Cathedral School, Maret and
more to share their verse at the podium before a crowd of 150 friends, families,
and teachers. Parkmont acknowledges our English teachers who submitted entries,
Willa Reinhard and Nijole Gedutis, as well as the following semi-finalist and
finalist poets:
Chris Campbell (ALSO A FINALIST!)
Elissa Khoury (ALSO A FINALIST!)
Antonio Smith-Pinelo (ALSO A FINALIST!)
Tomas Rodriguez
Latisha Bangura
Grace Nimley
Alexis Jackson
Jason Martinez
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Here is Antonio Smith-Pinelo’s poem:
THE FIRST SUNRISE
Over millions of years, the rock has diverged
and converged stretched and shrank.
First came the young unfinished planet, its
seams spewing out its core.
Battered by millions of small assailants, it
hurtled through the boundless expanse that
is the astral plane.
But over the astral plane’s horizon, the young planet could see the divine light.
It was a strange light; it meant good times and sunny days zipping around and
around again.
The young planet then realized that it was going to miss the light.
It had to do something. It reached out with its magnetic field. It beckoned a big
piece of rock closer, closer, closer . . . WHAM!
The young planet was hit with the force of ten thousand
atom bombs
To change its chaotic and hopeless course to one
with purpose.
The young planet could feel the warmth hitting its
mangled and raw skin
The ice it held just above its dead cold core for so long
had begun to melt.
The strange new liquid rushed up through the slowly
heating ground,
Welling craters and cracks on its skin.
The water felt good on the young planet’s marred
and wounded skin.
Light shined down on the planet’s surface. The first sunrise.
Our three proud
finalists: Antonio,
Elissa, and Chris.
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Parkmont Spirit Week!
This Winter, Parkmont’s 2nd Spirit Week of the year was spearheaded by two
middle school students—Asaah and Elissa. Students came up with the daily
schedule and promoted the event in weekly meetings leading up the event. Our
kids were adamant about including a “culture day” this time around—a day they
could show off their various cultures by dressing up and bringing in homemade
dishes. Our diverse student population is part of what makes Parkmont such a
special place, and it was wonderful to see that on full display for a day. Other days
included twin day, mismatch or “bamma” day, pajama day, and black-and-white
day. Matthew McClain was the faculty sponsor for this year’s spirit week, and
joined other teachers and students in showing their school spirit!
Parkmont students
and staff dress up
in style for spirit
week—here are a few
of our twins from
Tuesday Twin Day.
Preparing for College: Parkmont’s College Night
This spring, Parkmont hosted College Night on Monday, April 11. It is a great
opportunity for students and families to begin getting organized about college
planning. The evening’s focus is to supply current 10th and 11th grade families with
information about how Parkmont helps students prepare for college, including:
• At parent conferences in both fall and spring, advisors work with families to
plan for post-high school education.
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• Advisors also assist eligible students in obtaining standardized testing
accommodations.
• We teach SAT test prep as part of our afternoon class line-up and our summer
school offerings.
• We provide fee waivers for eligible students for SAT and college applications.
• We provide access to a college counseling group for those looking at 4-year
schools.
• Seniors spend a extensive time reflecting on college and/or post-high school
plans as part of the senior petition process.
What’s Our Next Adventure?
Parkmont prides itself on taking students out into the world and making this an
integral component of our curriculum. Here are just some of the
places we’ve gone this year:
Students from Nijole’s
MS World Religions
Greenbriar State Park
class visit Sri Shiva
Vishnu Temple.
Movies! The Martian, He Named Me Malala, and IMAX
films at the Smithsonian
Meditation at Great Falls National Park
Spark Lab at the American History Museum
Community Service at A Wider Circle and DC Area Food Bank
Ice skating at the Sculpture Garden
“Wonder” at the Renwick Gallery
Skiing at Whitetail Ski Resort
“Akeelah and the Bee” at Arena Stage
Calleva Ropes Course
Sri Shiva Vishnu Temple
Washington National Cathedral
Holocaust Museum
Freer/Sackler Galleries
Making pupusas at a local pupuseria
The National Zoo
The Washington Monument
US Capitol
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Our Interdisciplinary Approach to “Main Lessons”
Parkmont students have had the opportunity to explore a wide array of subjects
during their main lessons. Course titles for sessions 3, 4 and 5 included World
Religion, Computer Science, Journalism, Spanish, Imperialism, Crime Lab,
Psychology, River Ecology, Flight Science, and Philosophy. Unlike other classes, main
lessons are meant to be interdisciplinary; though students examine one specific
topic, they do so from different disciplinary angles. This approach strengthens a
variety of academic skills simultaneously, such as logical reasoning, writing, and
reading. In Computer Science, for example, students use formulas to code while
also researching historical facts about computer viruses and operating systems.
In Crime Lab, students learn about forensic techniques while also debating the
morality of youth incarceration. Science intersects with social justice, and, as a
result, students are able to connect one seemingly unrelated concept with another.
Intrigue grows and, soon, students are ready to look at issues and challenges from
multiple sides.
The entire middle school
gathers for a photo outside
the Whitetail Lodge,
after a long and fulfilling
day on the slopes.
The Middle School Ski Trip
Parkmont middle school students and
staff met early on a Wednesday in January
bundled up and ready to hit the slopes. The
group headed to Whitetail Ski Resort in
Pennsylvania for a beautiful day of skiing
and snowboarding. There were many
beginners in the group, all of whom braved
the lessons and mastered the bunny hills.
There were also several bold experts who,
over lunch in the lodge, shared stories of
thrills and moguls. Students challenged
themselves and helped each other up
the lifts and down the slopes. As always,
students are already looking forward to next
year’s trip.
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Shredding the POW-POW
IMPORTANT
UPCOMING
DATES
FRIDAY, MAY 13
MS Noon
Dismissal
Spring Student
Exhibition and
Potluck, 6:30-8:00
pm
MONDAY, MAY 30
Memorial Day, No
School
TUESDAY, JUNE 7
Last day of school
for MS, noon
dismissal
MS Moving-Up
Ceremony, 7pm at
Parkmont
FRIDAY, JUNE 10
End of Session 5
for US
SUNDAY, JUNE 12
US Graduation,
5:30pm at
Parkmont
JUNE 27 – JULY 29
Summer School
(M – F, 9:00-1:00)
Next up for a day at Whitetail was the upper
school. Students showed up bleary in the early
morning but excited to tackle the mountains.
The conditions made for a perfect day for all
levels. The sun was shining and the snow was
soft and plentiful. Everyone spent the first part
of the morning working out the kinks and
getting a feel for the snow. By mid morning
everyone was
riding the lifts
and shredding the
trails. It was fun to move between the beginners area,
where people were taking on new challenges, and the
more experienced slopes where Satchel, on skis, and
Nahom, on a board, were showing off their skills. After
lunch a group of the more experienced skiers decided
to head to the back bowl of Whitetail, to step up to
some black diamonds. By 3 o’clock everyone was ready
to pile back in the vans and take a nap!
Left: Alex, a tenth grader
at Parkmont, pauses for
a photo after making it
down Angel’s Drop, one of
Whitetail’s more challenging
Blue Diamond runs.
Below: Matt, Josh, and Mike,
three of our more experienced
skiiers, ride up the lift to
the back of the mountain.
Somebody should tell them
to put that bar down!
A Note about Spring Parent Conferences
We’ve had many of our spring parent conferences already. As a reminder, Parkmont
meets with each family at least twice per year, once in the fall and once in the spring.
The meetings include student, parent(s)/guardian(s), advisor and Ron. This is a
chance to discuss academic progress, plans for the summer and start planning for
the upcoming school year. If you have not yet scheduled your conference, please
contact Tiken in the main office at 202.726.0740.
■■■■
4842 Sixteenth Street, N.W. • Washington, D.C. 20011
(202) 726-0740 • (202) 726-0748 (fax)
Development: Ext. 211 • Admissions: Ext. 210
www.parkmont.org
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