November 13 - Fall Exhibition 6:15pm (GSA fundraising dinner begins at 5:15)
November 27 - Winter sports and drama begin - Buses resume late departure
December 5 - 11th and 12th grade parents round table discussion at GCC, 7:00 PM

Big thanks are in order to the APC's Auction Planning Committee; to all parents who donated items, baked desserts, and/or attended the auction; and to our student volunteer servers and child care providers!  The efforts of many made possible a wonderful time - and good amount of money was raised for our school.

This year's Fall Exhibition will take place on November 13 at 6:15 PM and feature the work of Academy seniors, as well as 9th grade Biology projects and 8th grade Health projects.

There will be a benefit dinner at 5:15 PM hosted by The Academy's Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA). The menu will be vegetarian soup, salad and bread. The $5 cost/person can be billed to student accounts.  Desserts will be available by donation. Proceeds from the dinner will be used to help fund conference fees for any Academy student interested in attending the Annual GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) Conference. The GSA also hopes to provide speaker honoraria fees to a panel of transgender individuals who might come to educate the community on their experiences.

Be prepared to enjoy a delicious meal before viewing the students' projects at Fall Exhibition. Please join us!

Dear Academy Parents,

I wanted to reach out to you all with the following resource, an article entitled The Adolescent Brain - What All Teens Need to Know.

This article was shared with 9th-12th grade students in a recent advisory, and will be shared with middle school students as well. The advisory activity built particularly off of points 9 & 10 in the article, discussing how social-emotional stress can be particularly heightened in adolescence. We then asked students to consider that as intense as their social-emotional challenges are, they are in fact temporary, and we all have some plasticity to the identities we inhabit. Using anecdotes about finite examples of social-emotional stress written by the seniors, we made this reality more personal, seeing how our very own student role models have been through tough times and made it through to tell the tale. Finally, students wrote their own anecdotes about a time they experienced social stress or harm, and how it was resolved.

The impetus for this advisory session came out of this article in The New York Times: Teaching Teenagers to Cope With Social Stress. The article explores research that was conducted following a group of adolescents who had just such an experience (learned about the adolescent brain, read anecdotes from older students about finite social stress, and then wrote their own), compared with a group who did not. The findings indicated decreased levels of stress hormones in the students who participated in this exercise.

I should also mention that, following this advisory, one enterprising junior sent me this article from the Smithsonian magazine which offers a different perspective about the real source of teenagers' impulsivity (arguing that it's not neuroscience, but lack of experience that leads to this). 

I share all of this with you in the hopes of working towards a common vocabulary about the brains and inner lives of our students/your children. Though the article about the adolescent brain led to some giggles (the language is a bit condescending at times, or maybe just trying too hard at being youth-oriented), the hard science it discusses is useful information to have and to call upon in challenging moments. At the very least, it could be an interesting conversation to engage your child(ren) around what they gleaned from that advisory.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

Nora

In the 2nd Annual Cupcake Challenge, student teams were challenged to take a blank canvas (plain cupcakes) and create a masterpiece. Teams were  given 6 plain cupcakes and a bag of identical mystery decorations. But wait, there was a twist...each team was also given a unique decoration (anything from band-aids to brussel sprouts) that was required to be visibly incorporated into their masterpieces.

Votes were cast during the Halloween Dance and the winners were announced at a following Morning Meeting. Click here to see all cupcake designs. Congratulations to all participants on a challenge well met! 

How to Understand and Reduce Anxiety in Children & Adolescents
with Paul Foxman, PhD

On November 16, Thursday night, 6:30-8:30pm, at the Hilltop Montessori School in Brattleboro, Vermont Paul Foxman, Phd., will be presenting "How to Understand and Reduce Anxiety in Children & Adolescents", He is the author of  "The Worried Child" and runs the Center for Anxiety Care in Burlington VT. More details in the attached poster. 

This presentation is appropriate for parents, professionals or any interested adult. The event is free. 

The winter after school program is around the corner. Buses will return to late departure on Monday, November 27. Students have the option of participating in our drama program, girls' basketball, recreational skiing, or competitive skiing. Students can also be picked up at 3:15 PM or stay after school in a study hall until buses leave at 5:15 PM. For information about drama, please contact Kimberly Overtree. For information about the ski program, please read this letter, or contact John Schatz with questions about winter athletics.

As part of membership in the Network of Complementary Schools, we at times are treated to visitors from other member schools. We are currently seeking a host family for January 14-26 for a 10th grade girl from Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, PA.

Ava Sinai lives in a suburb west of Philadelphia with her parents, and has an older brother who is a freshman in college. Ava writes for her school's magazine and competes in their mock trial. She likes all of her classes, but especially Science, English and Math. She also pitches for her school's softball team in the spring, and plays on a travel softball team year-round. She looks forward to bringing her urban perspective to the Academy community, and is excited to experience a more rural setting.

Anyone interested in hosting Ava should contact Nora Bates Zale.

Classroom Close-Up:  Environmental Science

Students in Environmental Science harvested carrots and turnips for use in the kitchen and raked and weeded some of the beds. It's part of an ongoing effort to learn about sustainable agriculture and our school's ecological footprint.