The Georgetown School

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25 Feb 20141 Mar 2014

Eighth Grade Visits Atlanta

(This article was written by Savanna Morris and Isabella Neubauer.)

On Wednesday, February 19, the 8th graders of The Georgetown School of Arts and Sciences visited Atlanta, Georgia, to see the centuries-old Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. Mrs. Lane Crosby, the middle school English teacher at TGS, took her two English I students, Savanna Morris and Isabella Neubauer, on the field trip. Mrs. Crosby commented, “Shakespeare wrote his plays to be seen on the stage, not just read in a book. I think the students learned more in these three days than they could have learned in a classroom.”

Bright and early on Thursday morning, they headed out into traffic to The Shakespeare Tavern, a small theater perfectly constructed for Shakespeare’s plays. After the play Romeo and Juliet, the students traveled through the Georgia Tech campus to Sublime Doughnuts, which has been presented with multiple awards and has even been in the magazine Southern Living. After the 8th graders were full of doughnuts, they journeyed to the High Museum. They saw exhibits such as Go West and African Masquerade and also viewed the High’s modern art collection. After, dinner at Chai Pani, an Indian restaurant in Decatur, they proceeded to the Fernbank Planetarium and Observatory.

On Friday, Isabella and Savanna spent most of their time at the huge Georgia Aquarium with creatures as big as whale sharks! Next, the 8th graders walked through Centennial Olympic Park to the CNN building. The tour began with a trip up the largest free standing escalator in the world. Then, they continued with the observation of the news room where news gathering and reporting was occurring. After another quick walk and many pictures back through Centennial Olympic Park, they went to The World of Coca-Cola! The World of Coca-Cola was full of colors, but mainly the pop of red everyone recognizes on a Coke. Isabella and Savanna tried many of their 60+ international favors!

On Saturday they packed their bags and drove to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. The MLK Center was an impressive museum containing videos of his speeches and sermons, many picture displays, his birthplace, his church, and his tomb. The final stop was at a well-known place called The Varsity, the largest drive-in restaurant in the world. Then, the 8th graders from The Georgetown School of Arts and Sciences returned to Georgetown after a long drive.

Thank you to Mrs. Crosby for organizing such an awesome field trip and a special thank you to her parents Mr. and Mrs. Kent for hosting our group.

21 Feb 20141 Mar 2014

Bienvenidos, Tomas and Matias!

TGS has had two very special visitors over the last couple of weeks. Our Spanish teacher Senora Yorky is hosting her two nephews, Tomas and Matias. Lucky for us, they decided to join the kids at school for a few hours a day. Tomas and Mattias are from Chile. Because they live in the Southern Hemisphere, they are currently on their summer vacation. Not only have they joined in on Senora’s Spanish classes, they have also participated in Mrs. Crosby’s English classes, reading Romeo and Juliet with the eighth graders. We appreciate this opportunity to speak Spanish with native speakers and to understand how other cultures view Shakespeare.

14 Feb 2014

Oyster Roast 2014

Bright sunshine and mild temperatures brought more than 150 people out to the S.C. Maritime Museum on Front Street Sunday afternoon, February 9, to enjoy the first annual TGS Oyster Roast.

Pots of steaming oysters were served up by Jeep Ford, Brad Payne and Joe Exum onto large trays which TGS students carried out to the hungry oyster lovers. “These are absolutely delicious,” said parent Logan Hejl as he slurped down another single. There was also a grill with barbecue sandwiches and hot dogs plus a student-sponsored bake sale. Local guitarist and songwriter John Lammonds played his music, making the afternoon festive and relaxing, joined by TGS junior Sara Cyr, also on guitar.

Students and parents kept busy throughout the party, holding signs to attract people on Front Street, selling tickets, serving the food, and recycling shells and trash. The Mighty Kingfisher, our TGS mascot, showed up around 3:00 in his new outfit to high-five the kids and dance on the sidewalk.

TGS would like to thank its Oyster Roast sponsors: Ace Hardware, Dawson Lumber, The Meat Locker, the River Room, the S. C. Maritime Museum and Tupacz Liquors. Congratulations to our PTO on a job well done and to Laura Lee for getting us all organized. Parents, teachers and students, you were there for The Georgetown School and our first annual Oyster Roast was a huge success!

9 Feb 201410 Feb 2014

TGS at the SCISA State Literary Meet

On February 5, nine TGS students traveled to Faith Christian School of Summerville to compete in the SCISA State Literary Meet. Thomas “Top” Lee, ninth-grader, won first place in essay writing event, an hour-long competition where he drew the topic “Is apologizing a form of weakness?”

“The topics last year were more factual,’ said Top, “I had to make a moral judgement this year.”

Other categories of competition at the Lit Meet include oral interpretation, extemporaneous speaking, storytelling, poetry and debate. Adara tried her hand at oral interpretation, using an excerpt from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. “I was nervous, scared and excited, ” she said, “It was a lot of pressure.” Grayson agreed, “I was excited and nervous too.” Grayson interpreted Atticus Finch’s closing arguments from To Kill A Mockingbird. Lochlyn performed a dialogue from Romeo and Juliet, “I was shaking the whole time but I felt good about my voice variation. It was hard to do two voices,” she said.

Sara and Isabella did not have trouble with their essays, writing on prayer with teachers and the effects of technology on community. Chris felt confident and Sam “felt like a boss” after their extemps but Ryleigh admitted she felt nervous and was shaking the whole time.

Head of School Dr. Gary Gates chaperoned the trip with Mrs. Crosby. “The Lit Meet is a great opportunity for students to work on and show off their rhetorical skills–their power to persuade both orally and in writing. All year, our Open Forum speakers have been stressing the importance of these skills on the job market. Next year, we will take the entire student body.” Thank you, Mrs. Crosby, for organizing our participation in this event and thanks to our student journalist, Wilfredo Urias, for covering the event.

2 Feb 201426 Mar 2014

Floating Docks for the Winyah Bay Sailing Club

A small but enthusiastic group of Kingfisher volunteers gathered at Hazzard Marine early on Saturday, February 1. They came to help the Winyah Bay Sailing Club finish building a total of four floating docks which will hold its fleet of sailboats. The floating docks will allow boats kept off trailers and to be stored out of the water. TGS will be using these boats in the spring for its sailing team, so we wanted to help the club with its project.

First, our new friend Johnny Weaver took us out along the dock to see the floating dock that is already in place and to check out the boats, all 420s donated by a club in Charleston. “My sailboat is a john boat but my grandchildren love to sail,” Johnny told us. Then we came back to the parking lot and started getting floats, boards and power tools organized. Johnny Weaver and Chris Register were in charge of the volunteers, with expert help from Noel Desmarteau and Bob Turner, the man with the skil saw! Soon sawdust was flying and people began pounding screws in the framework with their hammers. It was very noisy and all the kids there really enjoyed the challenge of getting the screws in straight, so much that they later chose not to use the nail gun to finish the top–they stuck with their hammers!

The TGS Sailing Team is looking forward to getting out on the water later this spring, thanks to the Winyah Bay Sailing Club. The new floating docks will make that process so much easier. Ashley Desmarteau wrote to us: “We were so impressed to start the day with two teachers and Isabella and Josh from The Georgetown School–thank you for coming on such a dreary day.”

25 Jan 201425 Jan 2014

Yawkey Wildlife Center Welcomes TGS High Schoolers

Jim Lee of D. N. R. was our guide for a day of exploration on Cat and South Islands, home of the Yawkey Wildlife Center. The high school students, along with Dr. Gates and Dr. Razzi, took the ferry across the Intracoastal Waterway to the landing, then loaded into the tour bus.

Lucky for us, wildlife sightings were abundant–deer, a very cold pelican, shore birds such as cranes and heron, juvenile bald eagles and vultures. There was even one red cockaded woodpecker, a local endangered species that nests in old-growth, long leaf pine trees. But the students’ favorite was an otter who crossed the road and dove into the creek on the other side. “That otter runs really weird,” observed Nathan as all the students pointed their phones and captured “Derrick.”

Jim Lee took us to a wooden chapel which had its own congregation until fairly recently. He played a recording of their choir singing gospel hymns so we could understand how the chapel used to be and what is lost now. The music was both familiar and haunting, giving us a sense of our own community’s rich history.

After lunch, we visited Mr. Yawkey’s game room, which contained his big game trophies and memorabilia from the years he was the owner of the Red Sox. One giant elk dwarfed the room, its antlers as wide as the height of some of the students.

Everyone came back to school in excellent spirits after this fun day of investigating the natural, cultural and historic riches of Georgetown County. Thank you, Jim Lee and D. N. R., for a wonderfully enriching experience.

18 Jan 201418 Jan 2014

TGS at the MLK, Jr. Parade

Saturday, January 18, was a cold, blustery morning but the weather did not deter The Georgetown School and some 60 other entries from joining the Second Annual MLK Parade. Sponsored by the Mitney Project, the MLK Parade featured local bands, churches, motorcycle clubs, equestrians and a host of other organizations.Manage My Blogs

TGS students and faculty met earlier in the morning to decorate “our” pick-up truck with cloud shapes containing excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The parade pulled out slowly from the area beside Beck and headed down Merriman Road. Our new Kingfisher mascot attracted a lot of attention from the crowd with his bright blue feathery head (thank you, Mrs. Gates and Mrs. Patrick!). TGS students waved and tossed candy to a crowd which looked happy and excited despite the cold. By the end, the crowd was racing the floats to the fantastic celebration at the Howard Adult Center.

Congratulations to our friends at The Mitney Project on a very successful event and a huge thank you from TGS to all of our participants.

16 Jan 201416 Jan 2014

Museum Visit

TGS students and faculty took advantage of the nice weather on Wednesday, January 15 to walk over to the newly reopened Georgetown County Historical Society Museum on Broad Street.

Museum Director Jill Santopietro greeted students warmly and told us we were the very first school to visit the new facility since its grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony last Friday.

We toured the History Center on the ground floor, which retraces the history of Georgetown from Native American times to the present. Then we went to the second floor where the main collection is on display.

Jill first showed us the original plan of Georgetown on a very early map of our downtown. Then we saw a letter written by Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. Students were pleasantly surprised to be able to read “Fran’s” handwriting.

The military collections appealed to some of the students, who spent a long time looking at old weapons. They also liked the model of a shrimp boat. Other students were more fascinated by decorative display cases from the C. L. Ford store, with drawers that used to contain spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg.

Dr. Razzi was soon deep in conversation with Jill about the travelling Smithsonian exhibit on the history of sports, coming soon to the Museum. Jill offered a research partnership to Dr. Razzi’s 8th grade S. C. History class–the class will investigate the history of sports in Georgetown to round out the Smithsonian exhibit with local details.

“Good thing I like history,” said Savanna as the school headed back to the campus for third period.

10 Jan 2014

TGS Middle Schoolers are Language Buddies at KES

How many middle school students have helped teach English to children who speak other languages? Yesterday, our TGS students began volunteering to do just that. During study hall, our sixth graders met their Asian language buddies at Kensington Elementary School. The little girls, kindergarten students, knew only a few words of English. Our students helped the children practice body terms such as eyes, nose, and mouth; classroom vocabulary such as pencil, book, and scissors; and “b” words such as ball, bat, and boy.

Next week, our seventh graders will work with their Hispanic language buddies at Kensington. Our students will read to their buddies and play games to help the children expand their vocabularies. Two of our seventh graders are bilingual! Their Spanish skills will help them relate to the younger children in a way most students cannot. Teachers at Kensington are excited to have TGS students as role models and tutors for their English language learners. The elementary children look up to our students and look forward to interacting with them. In addition, our students have an opportunity to develop their leadership skills.

13 Dec 2013

Last Day of Class 2013

On Wednesday, December 11, students and faculty celebrated the last real day of classes before midterms with a morning trip to Hobcaw Barony and an afternoon Secret Santa Christmas party. We toured artist-in-residence Maura Kenny’s watercolor exhibit at the Discovery Center. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed her enhancement of the medium with silver stitches and transparent overlays to suggest the past in our present. The weather was so beautiful that we decided to walk down to the pond behind the center, which was lovely.

At lunch, a large and mysterious box arrived in the common room, courtesy of Chris and Chandler. The seniors presented their senior gift to The Georgetown School: a brand new refrigerator to keep drinks cold and ready to sell! Dr. Gates announced our spring trip destination and that all student fund-raisers should be directed towards earning money for it.

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