Wampanoag Culture Comes to Dorchester

On Friday, November 7, Gertrude Kitty Hendricks Miller visited our 3rd graders to give a workshop on Wampanoag dance, music, and culture. Ms. Miller, a member of the Wampanoag Singers and Dancers, taught our students about Wampanoag music and dance in the 17th century and today.

The Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers organization was founded in 1985 with the intention of sharing the songs and dances of the Wampanoag Nation with the public by performing them. The Singers and Dancers represent the Aquinnah, Mashpee, and Herring Pond communities. Through their intricate performances, the Singers and Dancers teach respect for the Wampanoag Nation's unique values, perspectives, traditions and forms of expression. Each dance is narrated and accompanied by hand-crafted rattles and a water drum. The singers strongly encourage audience participation and prefer to dance with the people, not for the people!

On Monday, those same 3rd graders had a different kind of Wampanoag experience: they built a wetu in Dorchester Park.  A wetu is a domed hut built out of natural materials - sticks and rope - to provide temporary shelter.  The students worked with 3rd grade parent and expert builder, Doug Bellow, and his wife Kate Lowenstein to bind together branches using two kinds of knots.  They then covered the structure using tarps.  Traditional wetus are often covered in grasses or bark.  The final structure is tall enough for an adult and wide enough to fit 10 or more people!  There is a hole in the center of the roof to let out smoke because these structures are traditionally heated by a small fire.  Both 3rd grade classes will travel to Plimoth Plantation on Monday, November 24th to see larger, more substantial wetus and learn more about Wampanoag culture past and present.

PAC Notes 

Thanks to all who organized and attended last Friday's PAC Science potluck at the Boston Nature Center.  Many enjoyed the naturalist programs: a live snake learning experience and a night hike.  Everyone enjoyed the fellowship and the good food.

Expert to Speak at PAC Meeting 

We encourage all families to attend next week's PAC meeting at the Dorchester Site as we will have a very special guest speaker: our own Master Teacher Jenna Gampel-Tzadok will give a talk introducing families to Expeditionary Learning and how it makes our school such a rich learning environment.  Ms. Gampel-Tzadok is an award-winning educator and has presented at national Expeditionary Learning conferences on her own and with Harvard Ed School professors Steve Seidel and Ron Berger.  The national EL Conference will be held in Boston in early December and will be a hot topic of conversation.  Come learn more about what and how your children are learning!

Also on the agenda will be a brief presentation from Mass Design about their findings from their meetings about new school building needs.

As always, pizza and childcare will be provided.  Please email Jenna Wertheimer at jennawerth@gmail.com if you will need childcare so we can staff appropriately.

From the Top

Last week, we hosted the first From the Top chamber music residency of the school year.  Four talented high school-age musicians, From the Top Arts Leaders Corinne Auger (violin), Clare McEwan (viola), Julia Churchill (violin), and Emma Churchill (cello) came to our school to take part in a series of rehearsals and lessons with four of the Dudamel Orchestra's oldest and youngest players: 8th graders Jose Fuentes (violin) and Chavez Singletary (viola), and 4th graders Marguerite Green (violin) and Yannik Dzialas (cello). 

The concert took place on Friday at the Dorchester site for an audience of parents, staff, and first-year Conservatory Lab students. For the first-year students, the concert offered a unique glimpse into what our school is all about, as well as a preview of the kinds of opportunities that are available to students who show continued dedication and hard work. Our four musicians started the concert off with a delicate, mysterious performance of the Arab Dance from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, followed by the From the Top Arts Leaders playing Alexander Borodin's stunningly beautiful String Quartet No. 2. The highlight of the concert was the final performance of Beethoven's timeless Ode to Joy, which was performed by a single ensemble comprised of all eight From the Top and Conservatory Lab musicians. 

Student Led Music in the Community

Several of our student musicians are now so accomplished and dedicated they are starting to organize outside gigs.  These students set rehearsal times on their own and (with a little help from their families) have played in small ensembles in their communities.

On Saturday night Marguerite Greene (violin) organized some of her orchestra mates, Tess Lepeska-True ( cello), Sam Muzac, (viola), Douglas Griffiths (viola) Sergine Muzac (violin) to participate in the 4th Presbyterian Church Talent Show. "Fourth Church" has been a part of South Boston since 1870. Situated between two housing projects, the church has at the heart of its mission a commitment to serve the neighborhood, touching the lives of well over 650 people every month. The group played Pirates of the Caribbean and the guest conductor Kevin Black commented " they know their stuff- I am up there to start them off". 

Audience members commented on the technique and quality of music from the young musicians. A professional musician (who had played guitar in show) said, "I can't believe you were in 3rd position!"  

Another member of the audience was a strings teacher in Chicago and was so excited to witness the Sistema movement in Boston! Marguerite participates in the theatre program at the church and also supports the food pantry and the homework and dinner program. She realizes the important role it plays in supporting kids and helping them to do great things. 

 On Thursday evening, The Pixie Club, a string quartet of 5th graders Niko O'Grady Arnold (violin), former Conservatory Lab student Megan Mei (violin), Tess Lepeska-True (cello)and Mayara Ryland (viola), played for the National Pancreas Foundation fundraiser held at The Algonquin Club of Boston.  Their repertoire of Game of Thrones, 12th Street Rag and the theme song from The Avengers was a big hit with the crowd as the event began.  This is the second Pixie Club gig as the girls first organized to play for the annual Wake Up the Earth Festival last spring in Jamaica Plain.  

We are proud of all our students as they share their love of music with their community! 

Primary School Canned Food Drive

 Ms. Dulberg and Ms. Meehan's 1st grade class is organizing a November Food Drive.  The 1st graders have begun their expedition, Neighbor to Neighbor, in which they are learning all about our Brighton neighborhood and becoming experts on various community workers.  We decided to do a food drive not only to help out our community, but also to deepen our connection to our neighborhood.  As a class we discussed what a food drive is and how it helps people.  The 1st grade crew made poster promoting the project and hung them around our school.  Then as a crew we came up with words to explain what a food drive was and went around and shared that message with the other classrooms.  

We started collecting food donations this past Monday and will be collecting non-perishable food through next Friday November 21st.  Please bring any donations to Ms. Dulberg and Ms. Meehan's classroom.  The children will deliver all donations to the Allston-Brighton Food Pantry.  Thank you for your support in this project. 

Take Note:

• Two different kinds of reports were sent home to families last week.  Progress Reports about each student were mailed home as well as our school's Title I "report card", describing our progress in achieving our proficiency goals.  Schools and districts are placed into one of five accountability and assistance levels (1-5), with the highest performing in Level 1 and lowest performing in Level 5. Our school has been placed into Level 1 because we succeeded in meeting our proficiency gap-narrowing goals.

• Reminder - now that the weather is getting colder, students are inside more and spreading contagious viruses more easily.  Please keep your child home if they have had a fever in the last 24 hours or if they have had diarrhea or nausea.