Bulletin 
December 15, 2017
Volume 37, #17

Calendar Reminders

December 19 - Polyglot
December 18 - Winter Concert - Mendenhall Center and Theatre, Northampton 7 PM
January 4 - Junior Parents meeting, Common Room 5:30 PM
January 21 - 6th grade Information Session, 1 PM
January 30 - APC (Academy Parents Council) Meeting, evening time and valley location TBD

WINTER CONCERT INFORMATION:

On Monday, December 18, The Academy is going on the road

The Academy school day will start at 8:30 AM at the Edwards Church in Northampton where students and faculty will briefly gather. Until 11:30 AM, students will be exploring nearby sites related to their studies. At 11:30 AM, students will rehearse for the winter concert at Theater 14 at Smith College. By grade, students will visit:
  • The 7th grade will be visiting the Beneski Museum of Natural History in Amherst.
  • The 8th grade will stay in Northampton and discuss aspects of sex education with Tapestry Health.
  • The 9th grade will be learning more about infectious disease from a representative of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
  • The 10th grade will be doing service work at the Lathrop Home in Northampton.
  • The 11th grade will be visiting the Smith Archives.
  • 12th grade will be practicing their oral delivery of their "This I Believe" speeches at the Edwards Church.
Families of students not in the concert have been contacted separately via email about options for the afternoon. More information about morning and afternoon bus route changes was emailed to families. Afternoon buses will depart Theater 14 at 3:15 PM.
Students in the concert are expected to return to Theater 14 at 6:00 PM and they are expected to dress to impress!

CONCERT AND EXHIBITION OF STUDENT ART

We look forward to seeing everyone Monday evening at Theater 14 in the Mendenhall Center at Smith College. Directions, parking, and accessibility information can be found HERE.
Please note that we will be collecting non perishable food items in bins at the event, located at the side entrances to the theater. In addition, the Community Service Council will be accepting donations to support the work of NuDay Syria. NuDay offers support, both financially and through the shipment of food and personal items to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people within Syria. The organization sends large container trucks with supplies through Northern Turkey. Donations will help our local Interfaith Council provide food contributions to an upcoming shipment.

Cookies Welcome for Post-Concert Reception!

Are you in the baking spirit?  Enjoy supporting local bakeries?  Please consider donating a plate of cookies to the APC Post-Concert Reception held immediately following the Winter Concert. Look for tables in the lobby to drop your donation off prior to the concert. Contact Diane Bigelow or Ann Hallenbeck for questions. Thank you!

WINTER CONCERT VIDEO - ONLINE ORDERING AVAILABLE

Pre order your DVD or download of The Academy's 2017 Winter Concert!  Tom Adams of Reelife Productions will once again record our concert and create a professionally edited version as a keepsake for your family. 
To order DVD copies ($20 each, including shipping), click HERE. An online/downloadable version will be available for $10 HERE.

POLYGLOT

Our annual school-wide winter holiday celebration, Polyglot, falls directly before the winter break on December 19. All students are asked to contribute to the community dinner that we have during Polyglot. Below is a list of food and task assignments for each grade. If students did not bring their food contributions to school today, please make absolutely sure that they do so on Monday (if they are getting a ride from school to Northampton) or on Tuesday. Contact Nora Bates Zale with any questions.
Grade
Food Assignment
Day of Polyglot
12th
Inventory place settings, cutlery, etc.
Enjoy!
11th
1 lb of butter
Serve food
10th
1 can of cranberry sauce/jelly
Clean up Recital Hall
9th
1 bag of ready-to-serve dinner rolls
Clean up Kitchen
8th
1 gallon of cider
Set tables
7th
1 bag of stuffing (not Stovetop, please)
Assist 10th grade with RH clean-up

Spring 2018 Studio Block Offerings

We are happy and proud to offer a comprehensive and fun slate of Studio Blocks for the spring semester. Students will be registering for studio blocks on the morning of Polyglot, December 19th. In preparation, students and families should review our spring, 2018 Studio Block offerings.

SOCIAL JUSTICE COUNCIL

Sexual Harassment and Social Justice: What History Can Teach Us About Today’s “Me Too” Moment - Friday, January 5, 2:15 p.m.

When we return from holiday break, our Social Justice Council will be welcoming Smith College Professor Carrie N. Baker, J.D., Ph.D. for a presentation on the history of sexual harassment, as well as a reflection on what we're seeing in our contemporary society. Staff and students will be in attendance, and parents are welcome to join us as well. The Social Justice Council hopes that this presentation will provide valuable food for thought, and energize our community towards creating a larger scale learning opportunity for the greater public. A brief description of the program from Professor Baker appears below. Please contact Nora Bates Zale with any questions or concerns.
Members of Congress are resigning and media companies are firing top newscasters and writers for sexual harassment. Women are standing up and declaring “me too,” finding each other and speaking out. Author of The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harassment and Smith College Professor Carrie N. Baker, J.D., Ph.D. will reflect on what’s happening today by looking back at the history of sexual harassment, women’s resistance, and legal change.

German-Jewish Lunch

The Academy hosted a German-Jewish lunchl on Wednesday, December 13th. This event marked the long and complicated history between Germany and European Jews, and also explored some of the culinary traditions shared by both cultures. We broke bread together on the 13th in the form of Rotkohl and a Sauerbraten stew prepared by Chef Stan Langston, and latkes and German Christmas cookies prepared by the Arts and Cultural Exchange Council.
Julian B, Vroni B and Mr. Green making latkes
Julen P, Hannah K, Vroni B, Isabel L, and Julian B make jam filled cookies, with everyone ending up with flour marks on their clothes.
Nacho TP and Hannah K prepping for the holiday meal
Students from the Arts & Culture Council (Solly C, Vroni B, Julen P and Sam R) peeled an entire 50 pound sack of potatoes and many onions, in preparation for latke-making guided by Mr. Gay.
Julian B learning to make latkes

ERDING STUDENTS DEPART, LEAVING NEW FRIENDS BEHIND

Next week we say farewell to Hannah, Vroni, and Julian as they'll be making their way home to Germany.  It's always hard to say goodbye.
We're grateful for their friendship and hope they'll visit us again someday!

Thoughts on Privilege and Gratitude
From the Desk of Dean of Students Nora Bates Zale 

A couple of weeks ago, I was faced with a double-headliner of Friday Academy events. Ms. Overtree and I, sharing faculty leadership roles on both our team and our council, spent the first part of the evening with Upstate Pasghetti Squelch at the Trinity Church preparing, serving and cleaning up their weekly community supper. We then hustled back to campus to enjoy the Social Justice Council’s screening and discussion of Who is Dayani Cristal?, a moving story about the impact on one family of a man’s failed attempt at crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. As I drove home that chilly evening, I was filled with equal parts of sadness and gratitude.
That many families face hunger in our area is likely not news to anyone. According to the website for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, more than 223,000 people in western MA struggle with food insecurity. We can also probably all agree on the fact that Academy community members’ lives are filled with obligations and commitments, and it may sometimes feel like going to a community supper is yet another event on the calendar, further whittling down one’s free time. Still, I couldn’t help but marvel that night at how lucky we are that, for many of us, not only do we tend not to worry about where our next meal is coming from, but we also have an opportunity built into our lives to help make a meal possible for someone who can’t so easily dismiss that same worry. The joy that our students and staff provide to the folks who attend those suppers spills far past the boundaries of a plate of hot food. Whether we make the evening all the more merry by bringing instruments, or offering a reading, or simply by sitting down next to someone we don’t know and sparking up a conversation, we’ve been told time and again by the meal coordinators that our presence and help is invaluable. We are told that those who attend the meals often ask, once our supper obligations have finished for the year, “When are the Academy kids coming back?” What a privilege that is, to make such a difference with so little effort. I am grateful that, like many things we do here, the community supper program is a vestige from the past (my mother started it up while I was a student in the late ‘90s) that lives on, and does so with such vigor. 
That there are also many families in our region who aren’t sure where they will spend each night, or who face very real fears around deportation is likely also not a surprising statement to any of us. The long-held debate around immigration and how our nation handles it seems to take new turns with each refresh of the news cycle, but it is easy for those of us not directly affected by these issues to shake our heads and move on with our days. We often hear about how a given event helps to “put a human face” on a particular issue - watching Who is Dayani Cristal? and engaging in the subsequent discussion with the students and parents present did just that for me and my understanding of immigration in our country. Devastating, while a very strong word, doesn’t even seem to do justice to the effect our current laws have on families, who are not only seeking better lives, but many simply seeking survival. I don’t know the answers - whatever they are, they’re not easy to imagine - but I do know that I am beyond grateful to be a part of a community where people care enough to show up on a dark Friday night to bear witness to one man’s story, and to talk together about what to do next, even if the most obvious step is giving a small sum of money to an organization fighting for the rights of the youth caught up in this web of broken policies. 
To be a member of the Academy community is a great privilege. It’s easy enough for students to forget that; the list of demands and expectations they face is not a short one, and the exact same is true of faculty as well. But worth remembering from time to time, and even more worthy of our attention, is the consideration of what we all do with that privilege. Do we take it for granted, as we might with a meal or a warm bed, being so used to having it in our lives? Or do we step back, marvel at that privilege and all it provides for us, and use the implicit power within it to show up and give what we can to those who have less? ‘Tis the season, after all…

Academy Players to Perform Shakespeare in Hollywood

We are proud to announce that the winter play for 2018 will be Shakespeare in Hollywood by Ken Ludwig. It's 1934, and Shakespeare's most beloved fairies, Oberon and Puck, have magically materialized on the Warner Bros. Hollywood set A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by the famous Max Reinhardt. Instantly smitten by the glitz and glamour of show biz, the two are ushered onto the silver screen to play (who else?) themselves. Blonde bombshells and movie moguls are tossed into loopy love triangles, with raucous (and familiar) results thanks to a little help from a feisty flower. The mischievous magic of moviedom sparkles in this hilarious comic romp.
Performances for Shakespeare in Hollywood will be at 7:30 pm on March 3rd and 9th and at 2pm on March 4th and 10th. Casting will be completed before winter break. If you would like to help out with the production, please email our drama director, Kimberly Overtree.

CLASSES AND COUNCILS AND CHARITABLE GIVING

In this season of giving, Academy students are supporting the work of a wide variety of organizations working to make our region and the world a better place. We are proud to announce that in their classes and councils they have chosen to support these groups: Doctors Without Borders, World Wildlife Fund, Tapestry Health, Angell Animal Medical Center, Wounded Warrior Project, Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Community Action, Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Looky Here, The Brick House Community Resource Center, Just Roots Farm, The Care Center, Safe Passage, Community Action Immigrant Support Fund, and Climate Xchange.

Classroom Close-Ups

9th grade Biology class collected data to compare heart rates under avariety of conditions. Shown here are students attempting to activate the mammalian diving reflex by plunging their faces into fresh snow. The reflex was observed to slow the average heart rate by about 30%!
During Spanish IV class, students described their recipes from the Spanish-speaking world, which they had prepared at home. Then, they moved to the Fiesta gastronómica at a long table in the Common Room, where their creations were displayed, admired and devoured. Many other community members had a chance to taste gazpacho, arepas, tortilla española, tacos de pescado, chipas, quesadillas with Hatch green chiles, pasteles de tres leches, polvorones, mantecadas, magdalenas (gluten-free!), galletas mexicanas de chocolate and to drink, passion fruit juice and chocolate mexicano caliente.

SPORTS RECAP - WEEK OF DECEMBER 4

The girls' basketball team lost to Dublin by a score of 58-12 on Wednesday. Eliza B, Sylvie M, Ruby C, and Cristy K all scored for The Aardvarks, while Ruby R turned in an all-around strong game on both ends of the floor. The team lost 40-11 on Thursday to Eagle Hill. Macy K, Elaina GB, and Rachel F had strong games on defense, while Gwen H contributed to the scoring.

Contra Dance

Academy Families are invited to join the Zakon-Anderson family  at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield (401 Chapman Street) on Saturday Dec 30 for a contra dance with the band Polaris. The dance will run from 8 to 11:30 PM. Polaris members include Sam Z-A ’17 on piano and Rose Jackson (sister of Elijah) playing fiddle. Steve Zakon-Anderson (P’17, P’19) will be teaching and calling for the evening.
For those of you who came and danced in the spring of 2016, when Polaris made their debut at the Grange, you already know how much fun a contra dance with friends and family can be. (Plus it raised $1000 for the Annual Fund!) For those that haven’t tried it yet please join us, and come early in the evening when the most careful instruction is provided.
Admission for the evening is $10-12 for adults and $8 for high school students or younger. We will offer a family max rate of $30 to Academy families, so bring the siblings! A portion of the proceeds from this dance will be donated to the school’s Annual Fund.
So, get out of the house on a Saturday night, to raise some fun, and raise some funds!

2017-18 Updated School Directory Now Available

Want to know how to contact other students, parents and staff? Wonder which team your child is on? Want to email an entire grade? The updated 2017-18 Directory is now available as a secure download from The Academy's website. Under Parents, click "More..." and you will see a link to the directory. That link will take you to a private, password-protected vault where you can download the document. The password has not changed.
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