The Georgetown School – The Georgetown School

19 Jan 202320 Jan 2023

January 18, 2023: Kris Brame

Today, TGS said, “Bonjour!” to Kris Brame, Mme Gates’ former French student who also had Mrs. Patrick, Dr. Gates, and Dr. Neubauer as his high school teachers. Fluent in French and German, he now works as a translator today after starting his own company By The Word Translation. He talked to us about his love for learning languages and his international educational path.

Kris originally wanted to learn German, inspired by an Austrian exchange student his family hosted when he was in 8th grade. He told us “Everyone was always asking Fabian ‘How do you say that in German?’ and I learned the words.” He took French in high school, then decided to go on a German high school exchange program before graduating. While there, he began to perfect his German and French.

After earning the German equivalent of a high school diploma, Kris decided to stay in Europe to pursue translation studies at the university level in Mainz. He finished his B.S. at Kent State, then interned as a medical interpreter in Indianapolis. COVID put an end to in-person medical interpretation and at that point, Kris took the big step of starting his own company.

By the Word Translation is Kris’s online enterprise. He is still a medical interpreter, but now mostly does subtitle translations for many clients, most notably Netflix and a French poker show. Unfortunately, Kris couldn’t give any spoilers for our favorite shows! He had some advice for students who wish seriously to master their foreign language: find a good friend who is a native speaker to talk to and use the internet to read and listen to the language you want to learn. Vielen Dank, Kris!

By Emily

23 Nov 2022

Thanksgiving Feast 2022

Thanksgiving finds many of us in a good mood, thinking about all we appreciate about our lives as we look forward to the holidays. Our 10^th Annual Thanksgiving Feast was, as always, an occasion to express gratitude for each other—students, teachers, and families alike—by sharing a meal and relaxed fellowship together.

The menu this year did not disappoint: two roasted turkeys, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn pudding, mac-and-cheese, green beans, dressing and fresh fruit and more, all with plenty of gravy. There were also tons of dessert choices: red velvet cake, sopapillas, lemon bars, brownies, pumpkin and Key Lime pies, and much more. The tables were festive with greens and Thanksgiving-themed place settings.

The bounty of this feast each year reminds us of the bounty of our lives and we are grateful for each other. Thank you to everyone who decorated, prepared and brought food, served food, ate food, and cleaned up after the food! Did we mention we had food?

23 Nov 2022

U.S. History Field Trip

On a cold, sunny morning in November, the two U.S. history classes (8^th and 12^th grades) took a road trip south to visit several historic sites in Georgetown and Charleston counties.

Our first stop was the Sewee Preserve on the South Santee River. After a short walk through the pines to the marsh, we came upon a clam midden, a hill made of clam shells dating from the 1500s. The Indians who made it may have used it as a high, dry vantage point to see up and down the river.

Then we walked along the marsh to an circular, man-made formation in the marsh known as a shell ring, which is much older than the midden (it is from about 4000 years ago). The ring (about 50 feet in diameter) is made of clam shells, oyster shells, and broken pottery. Because it is built up higher than the marsh, it is ringed with distinctive vegetation. Shell rings such as this are found all up and down the East Coast, from Virginia to norther Florida. Their purpose is still unclear.

We got back on Highway 17 and stopped at the Wildlife Observation pull-off on the North Santee. There, we walked along former rice levees and looked for wildlife. Some people got to see ibis and an osprey. Our group was pretty noisy, so we didn’t see that much!

Heading south again across the Santee River Delta, we went into Hampton Plantation, where we were met by a delightful park ranger named Hannah who gave us a guided tour. We got to try pounding Carolina Gold rice in a mortar and we saw the entire house, upstairs and downstairs. We learned a lot about the families who lived there since the 1730s, both free and enslaved, from Hannah’s talk and primary documents that were on display.

We lunched in style on the porch and lawn of Hampton Plantation. Kingfishers gratefully attacked their food and lounged in the sunlight. Some kids tried the joggling board and had a skipping contest.

Our final destination was the Rice Museum in downtown Georgetown. We climbed up three stories to the Brown’s Ferry Vessel display. The Brown’s Ferry Vessel is the oldest colonial boat ever discovered. It was built in the early 1700s and sank in the Black River around 1730-1740. This merchant cargo vessel is a shallow-draft work horse, designed to move goods from the plantations to other points for sale or export.

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.”