What’s Happening
From September’s opening day to June’s closing ceremonies, we document and share events from all over our campus in an attempt to continuously communicate all the diverse goings-on at The Unquowa School. From school-wide events, assemblies, visiting presenters and other highlights from around campus, here’s a sample of what’s happening…
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Voices of Change
Posted by George Seferidis
On June 7th, the Unquowa School showcased a conceptual art show, Voices of Change, at Robert Valle Designs in Bridgeport’s Arcade Mall featuring exemplary works from 18 seventh and eighth-grade students. As a final collaborative humanities and art project, students were challenged with the opportunity to connect art and a personally relevant social issue. The powerful student work was the result of a trimester long interdisciplinary project. Additionally, it was the culmination of historical, analytical, and creative thinking skills cultivated by our two departments throughout the year, as our students have been analyzing conceptual art in the field starting last fall in New York City and in the spring at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.
Unquowa’s humanities program is founded on the premise that middle school students can think critically and creatively about the world around them, and that they can meaningfully participate in the global dialogue. Students make meaning by studying global culture and participating in it. In visual arts, students are tasked with using artistic principles and media to elicit a truth about themselves or their world. This collaboration between the arts and humanities is a natural vehicle for students to pursue these rich tasks and contribute to the larger conversation in an authentic way.
Voices of Change featured works that discussed issues such as school gun violence, income inequality, ecological issues, teen suicide, and racial bias. With over 90 guests in attendance, students and faculty engaged in meaningful conversations about the art and the topics they presented. Art is a powerful and empowering conduit of empathy, and we, the upper school art and humanities faculty, are so proud of the hard work and thought that students put into this project.
Phenomenal Fifth Grade Storytellers
Posted by Ariel Warshaw
47 days
Over 52,300 minutes
406 typed pages
102 illustrations
16 published authors
For the past 35 days, the fifth graders have worked tirelessly to craft incredible stories for their end-of-year capstone project in our Writing Seminar. The students spun tales of space exploration and deep sea adventures, unexpected romance and evil villains set on global domination, shipwrecked explorers and globe trekkers, complex family dynamics and pet rescue, haunted houses and intrepid competitors, and the triumph over adversity – both real and virtual. Not only did our students create beautiful works of fiction, but they also designed gorgeous illustrations and learned how to bind their books. We meticulously glued, stitched, and taped each tale by hand; our authors are now able to add their very own stories to their bookshelves.
To celebrate all of this hard work, we invited families to attend our Authors & Artists Capstone Event on May 29. We sipped on lemonade and nibbled on treats as fifth graders shared excerpts from their books to a beaming and engaged audience. It was a very special morning filled with pride and accomplishment. Our year together may be coming to a close, but the skills and joy we found together will be treasured for many years to come.
Pen & Paper – Volume 9
Posted by George Seferidis
We are delighted to share our 9th volume of Pen & Paper. We are so proud of all the hours of work that went into this year’s edition. If this digital copy isn’t enough for you, we will be selling copies next Tuesday at Closing Ceremonies and Commencement. Enjoy! If you wish to purchase a copy of this year’s issue, click here to go to the ordering page.
A Journey Through Ancient Greece
Posted by Vincent O’Hara
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates changed the course of history by challenging the status-quo, pushing his students to ask the difficult questions to find true knowledge. The 6th-grade Humanities students have spent this school year examining how ancient cultures shaped the modern world we live in today, and our most recent travels through time whisked us across the Mediterranean from ancient Egypt to Greece. The students explored how geography separated the people, making each Greek city-state a unique civilization, and how the competition among them was the driving force behind the innovations in government, military, philosophy, and the arts that scholars cite as Greece’s great legacy. As a class, we read Greek mythology, which offers a glimpse into the people of the time’s spiritual beliefs and understanding of nature. Furthermore, the students completed a research project on a mythological character, some demigod and some beast. As extra credit, some students even dressed as their characters!
As a culminating assignment, our 6th-grade scholars are completing a five-paragraph essay responding to a document-based question on what they believe are ancient Greece’s most innovative contributions to Western civilization. In the spirit of Socrates, we know there isn’t one answer, but a little argument couldn’t hurt, right?
Friday After School Guitar
Posted by David Coe
The After School Instrumental class had an awesome year!
Each Friday the room was filled with 4th – 8th graders all playing together and having lots of fun! Our favorite songs included Ode To Joy, Do Re Mi and the original compositions Friday Afternoon and Groundhog Day. Since there were no other classes taking place we could turn up the volume on electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, keyboard and percussion. Rocking out is a great way to end the school week.
We’ll be back at it next year!!
Celebrating The Class of 2018!
Posted by Kate Haviland
The year is flying by! To help mark this milestone, the parents of the Class of 2018 gathered to celebrate their children’s upcoming graduation. And the stories flowed!
Sharon Lauer and the faculty spoke about the extraordinary close bonds in this class. A closeness on full display during their tear-filled four hour bus ride home from their recent 8th Grade trip! They are prepared and eager for high school, but this is clearly a bittersweet time for them. We will miss them, but we send them off with confidence and pride…here’s to the Class of 2018!
