School news
Advanced topics in Spanish to present at Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park
On Wednesday, September 30, 27 students from Advanced Topics in Spanish will present at the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park. Following a tour of the park, students selected a topic of interest and developed an essential question to guide their research. These pictures show students getting their tour and then meeting with topic experts from the National Park Service. On Wednesday, they will present the answers to their initial questions in the form of a guided tour of the mansion and grounds in Spanish.
Any parents who speak Spanish are welcome to attend. Please contact Elaine Leibly at elaine.leibly@mtnviews.org for more information.
French 4 and AP Classes—Expression Culturelle
Nathalie Kramer's French 4 and AP classes made posters of resistance and protest for human/women's rights, the unhoused, and the environment.
The French 4 class wrote poems accompanied by drawings based on the famous French poem: Soyez Polis by Jacques Prevert—an ode to the planet and reminder of kindness toward mother earth and each other.
And in the AP French class, students made posters as an invitation to a call of awareness for the community; this was inspired by a gathering of women in Guadeloupe who formed a union and fought for their rights to be seen and heard.
Spanish classes explore art and cultural heritage at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts
AP Spanish Language and Culture
AP Spanish Language and Culture students visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where they studied a fresco that once decorated the apse of a small church in Santa Maria de Mur, Lleida, Cataluña, Spain. Dating to 1117, the fresco was removed in 1919 and sold to the MFA to pay for a new roof for the church. It's considered the finest example of Catalán Romanesque apse outside of Barcelona, and its removal prompted Spain to enact laws prohibiting artifacts important to national heritage from leaving the country.
Advanced Topics in Spanish
Advanced Topics in Spanish students are working on a display that we hope to share with the school community soon. They were asked to consider how to use objects or visuals to tell a story with minimal text, how objects and spaces are arranged and organized, and how decisions about what to include are made. Students are seen here examining ancient Greek coins.
When does the holiday season begin?
Señora Leibly's Spanish II class is holding a debate to resolve one of the defining questions of our time: does the Christmas season begin before or after Thanksgiving? Working in like-minded groups, students wrote a statement declaring their position on the topic as well as five supporting arguments. In an effort to anticipate what the opposing group might argue they developed five counterarguments and then a statement indicating why each of these is incorrect. The students are doing this completely in Spanish, a big lift at this level of language learning. The spoken portion of the debate will take place in Spanish, too, making this planning all the more important.
Advanced topics in Spanish students share stories of their national park
Over a dozen Advanced Topics in Spanish students took a deep dive into some behind-the-scenes stories of the Marsh, Billings, and Rockefeller families that all lived on the same property in Woodstock that is now a National Park Service site.
Students met with resource experts, accessed primary documents, and conducted research into topic areas of their choosing guided by essential questions such as: "How does the estate show/balance the difference between wealth and nature?", "What is the relationship between art in the mansion and MBR and why do we have that art?", and "How does the architecture and the landscape reflect the ideals of the 19th century and the philosophy of conservation of Marsh, Billings, and Rockefeller?"
Not only did these students conduct research and create a 5-minute mini-tour, but they then delivered their presentations to an audience of their peers—all native Spanish speakers visiting from Madrid. This is a monumental task that takes courage, preparation, and even a little bit of humor. Students appreciated getting to know different stories about the park and connecting with this resource in a new way.
The Spanish students are visiting as part of an exchange program with Colegio Salesianos Paseo Extremadura. The teachers accompanying the students were so impressed with the project that before the day was over, they had contacted their school to suggest that their students complete a similar project in English when we visit them in April.
