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News Magazine Annual Report NWS Viewbook NWS Calendar

National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie
receives a gift of appreciation after speaking
at Community Meeting. The gift was created by
Head's Assistant Alice Dunlap. To read the general Bulletin, scroll down the page. To print out or view the secure Bulletin, click here.
      Note: This version is password protected. * Calendars: Upcoming Games
NWS Online Calendar
What's for Lunch? Imagine that Basketball were the only sport that "counted," the only one with an association, playoffs, high-end stadiums - the only one recognized as legitimate. Baseball, swimming, football and the countless other sports - all insignificant. Ken Robinson, a keynote speaker who I heard at the National Association of Independent Schools' annual conference in New York, posited this in his talk about Creativity and Education. He likened our current perception of what is important in education, recognizing only math and verbal skills measured in very linear ways, to recognizing only one sport. He also cited a longitudinal study that revealed that "divergent thinking," something we are all born with and an important aspect of creative thinking, falls from 98% in three-year olds to single digits by the time we're adults. Teaching students to think creatively in all of their endeavors is a founding principle of the school. It is evident not only in the 57 arts classes we offer, but in the approach and attitude of teaching and learning throughout our program. Our Vision Statement for the new Strategic Plan reaffirms this founding principle: we are teaching to help form a creative and collaborative global community living peacefully on a changing planet. Ellen Taussig, Head of School Sherman Alexie, winner of the 2007 National Book Award for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, inspired wild applause at Community Meeting on March 27th. Describing his childhood as a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian on a reservation in eastern Washington reservation, he was funny, dramatic, and profoundly moving by turns. He began the day in the Library Classroom, speaking to 7th grade students who had read his book and signing their copies. After entertaining questions from the whole school, he was given a blanket, a traditional gift of appreciation, with the NWS "House" logo appliqued by Head's Assistant Alice Dunlap, whose mother is from the Squamish tribe of British Columbia. In the afternoon, the Faculty Book Club met to discuss the True Diary. We are grateful for this truly memorable visit. Our annual two-day celebration of the arts is coming on Thursday and Friday, April 10th and 11th. On Thursday, public art notable Buster Simpson and Laura Sindell will discuss their work and lead students on an Art Walk. The day will include workshops and performances at school. School will end at 2:45 PM.

• On Thursday evening, parents and neighbors are invited to gallery shows of student photography and ceramics at Kaladi Brothers Coffee, 511 E. Pike, and paintings at Bauhaus Books & Coffee, 301 E. Pine. The Opening Reception will be 6-8:00 PM at both venues. Exhibits will be on display through April.
   
  On Friday morning, the whole school will ride buses to Benaroya Hall for student performances. The day will end at 12:15 PM for the middle school and 12:30 PM for the upper school.
   
• At 7:00 PM on Friday, performing arts classes and solo dancers, singers, musicians and mimes will fill the stage at Benaroya's Nordstrom Recital Hall for the ArtsFest Gala.

Tickets can be purchased at the Benaroya Ticket Office or through Brown Paper Tickets. Please join us! Recently, 6th through 9th grade parents have been sharing coffee, insights and questions about the challenges of parenting with School Counselor Peter Berner-Hays and Middle or Upper School Directors. These gatherings have been a hit, so why shouldn't others benefit, too? Now 10th grade parents are invited to share experience and strengthen their connections to each other on Tuesday, April 1st, 7:00 to 8:30 PM in the Feynman Room. School Counselor Peter Berner-Hays will guide the conversation. Please join us on Thursday, April 3rd at the home of Bob Evans and Steve Davis. The theme of our 6:00 PM potluck dinner is "Spicy Food and Exotic Desserts." The program begins at 7:00. Parents, faculty, and administrators will discuss how to build relationships with immigrant groups in the Seattle area. Our intention is to increase the number of students from immigrant communities who apply to the school and to identify issues that affect the application rate. We'll be joined by representatives of some of those groups. Please RSVP to Sally Yamasaki. Laura Ferri's Middle School Advanced Theatre class will present a musical pastiche on World War I on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 7th & 8th at 7:00 PM in the NWS Theatre. This original production features 19 actors as a group of Broadway players, directors, and producers encountering the first birth control clinic, Women's Suffrage, the great Flu epidemic, the Actor's Strike of 1919, and the war itself. Most characters are based on real personalities such as Fannie Brice, the Barrymore family, George M. Cohan, and Irving Berlin. The play includes Vaudevillian and Follies musical numbers and several Shakespearian interludes. Admission is free. Don't miss the show! Two groups of Northwest School students will travel to China during Spring Break:

• Tina Chang's Mandarin Chinese students will travel with three native-Mandarin- speaking international students to Beijing, where they'll see Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the Summer Palace; to Xian, to see the Terra Cotta Warriors; to Guilin-Yangshuo; to Nanjing; and to Shanghai. On the last evening, senior Jennifer X.'s family will host the group.
   
• The NWS Chamber Orchestra will visit several cities and play concerts in the Shanghai area.

Eighty parents enjoyed Dinner with 12 Strangers in seven NWS homes in mid March, and emerged with new friends. Participants sampled a variety of cuisines and met fellow parents from all grades. Many thanks to those who opened their homes for these intriguing evenings: Jodie Wohl and Richard Hert, Laura-Mae Baldwin and Carl Chew, Terri Stratton, Kim and Jeff Grieff, Marilynn and Ken Balter, Elizabeth Aylward, and Gale Shinozaki and Mark Schroeder. And special kudos to Heather Trim, who conceived the idea years ago and who has made it one of our most popular events each year. A ten-member ensemble traveled to San Francisco in late March to perform a unique theatre piece based on the writings of teenagers in the critical care ward of the University of California San Francisco Children's Hospital. The material for the play - poetry, stories and artwork - came from patients under the care of Child Life Specialist Jill Meyers, a former NWS faculty member. The NWS students created the performance and staged it four times, at the hospital and at the deYoung Museum, for hospital administrators, patrons and donors, for the medical staff, and for the patient/authors and their families. Laura reports that "Doctors, nurses, and Child Life Specialists were moved by the insights into the often forgotten lives of their patients. The authors and their families were so appreciative of the care that (our students) took with the material and the creative energy that went into the production." Congratulations to Jill, Laura, and the ensemble: 9th graders Joe B., Chester D., Adrienne F., Julia R., Natalie W., and Julia W.; 10th grader Kelsey S.; and 12th graders Tim F., Mira L., and Sorina R.

 

On March 26th we welcomed nearly 90 grandparents and special friends for an elegant spring breakfast and a visit to their special students' classes. This was one of our most well-attended Grandparents and Special Friends Day ever! Our thanks to Linda Jacobs, grandmother of a NWS 8th grader, alum parent, and former College Counselor, for her enthusiastic introduction. Thanks also to Renee O'Harran and her fabulous kitchen crew, who graciously served a packed dining room. And kudos to Annual Fund Manager Jennie Leichtling and Volunteer Coordinator Amy Green, whose meticulous planning made this gracious welcome possible. Hats off also to our wonderful parent volunteers: Ann Stapleton, Sarah Bland, Bob Evans, Vreni Von Arx Watt, Jerry Watt, Anne Willoughby Nelson, Randy Simon, Kate Harkins, May Leong, Scott Guettinger, James Palmer, Genevieve Gormley, Holly Marklyn, Marcie McHale, Lynne Graybeal, Laura-Mae Baldwin, Laura Dewell, Janet Hietter, Karen Smith, Susie Vickers, Mary Lynn Jensen. Their efforts combined to create the warmest of welcomes. The noted NWS Photography program recently added a Macintosh Computer, an Epson 4880 printer, and a Nikon Coolscan 5000 digital camera. This new equipment allows photography students to scan slides and film, which can be printed up to 20 inches wide. It also accommodates digital files. Watch for color and digital images soon in the exhibition space located outside the Photography Lab. Many thanks to Susan Wickett-Ford and Scott Davis for taking their students to perform around the city in March. Scott's NWS Mime Syndicate, an ensemble of students from Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and the U.S., appeared at University Child Development School and at the Perkins School. Susan's World Dance class took dances from Ireland, Israel, the Philippines, China, Tahiti, and Zimbabwe to the Giddens School. They also performed at the Merrill Gardens Retirement Home on Queen Anne and for our neighbors at The Summit. Students in Suzanne Bottelli's Senior Writing Seminar were privileged to hear activist-poet David Smith-Ferri read from his newly-released book Battlefield Without Borders, which portrays his encounters with Iraqi refugees who have fled to Amman, Jordan. The brother of theatre teacher Laura Ferri, Mr. Ferri also discussed a slide show of his trips to Iraq and Jordan. Most proceeds from the sales of his books support victims of the war through a new program called the Direct Aid Initiative. Portraits of the families assisted by the program are at www.battlefieldwithoutborders.org. Sponsoring the 2008-09 Northwest School Calendar is a great way to highlight your business or send warm wishes to students or faculty. Filled with original student art, our full-color calendar is a gift we give each year to almost 500 current families, alumni, local businesses, and friends of the school. It keeps families aware of school events and provides a resource guide to goods and services. Sponsorship ads come in a size for everyone:

• Business card ad - $125
• Quarter page ad - $250
• Half page ad - $500

Please contact Amy Green, to add your support by purchasing an ad. We're grateful to alumni Mia Lahti '93 and Gesse Stark-Smith '03 for connecting NWS students with others in Mexico and Spain. Our 10th graders are corresponding with students in a school where Mia's husband teaches in Guanajuato, Mexico. Eleventh graders are emailing students in Gesse's English class in San Sebastian, Spain. 100 tickets are reserved for NWS parents, faculty and students to see Intiman Theatre's Tony Award winning presentation of Diary of Anne Frank on Thursday, May 8th at 7:30 PM. Ticket holders can enjoy a special pizza dinner in the Founders Room at 6:15 PM and hear an actor or director talk about how the production came together. The ticket order form can be found online at NWS Website > Forms. Please return the order form and check to Tamara Bunnell by April 4th. Francoise Canter and her Comparative Literature students, Greg Jones, Tamara Bunnell, and their Middle School students, and Librarian Nancy Highiet all attended a special Seattle Arts and Lectures event at Town Hall, where they heard author Lois Lowry speak about her life and her photography. All had read her famous book The Giver. March was Kamimura season, as a lively group of sophomores from our sister school in Japan filled our school and homes with laughter, dancing, and intense classroom study. This year's outings reflected the curriculum: before touring Theo's Chocolate Factory, the students studied how chocolate is grown and harvested and related fair trade issues; before a trip to Northwest Trek, they studied the animals they would encounter. They also enjoyed trips to the Seattle Times, the Space Needle, Bainbridge Island, Snoqualmie Pass, and hip hop lessons each week from Dance teacher Ellie Sandstrom. We're grateful to the many families who opened their homes to our guests: Gretchen Dingman & Thomas Lee, Connie & Adam Lehman, Eileen Hynes & Tom Hoffmann, Bob & Phyllis Holtzworth, Patricia Keegan & Tom Lennon, Paula Langbehn & Alma Kimura, Chris Hynes & Mark Mumford, Henryk & Melora Hiller, Jeff Blair & Kristina Peterson, Holly and Bill Marklyn, Cesar Gomez & Miriam Cervantes-Gomez, Megan Kruse & Robert Mucklestone, Laura-Mae Baldwin & Carl Chew, May Leong & Rory Lysaght, Deirdre & Harold Webb, Gale Shinozaki & Mark Schroeder, Audrey Fine & Stephen Katz, Monica Gripman & Matthew King, Carolyn Madsen & Eugene Duvernoy, and Mary Lynn Jensen & Jay Borseth. We're equally grateful to Gei & Matt Chan, and Dorothy & Aaron Nicholls, friends of NWS families, for providing homestays. Kudos to teachers Michael Loggins and Silli Krueger, who seem to enrich the curriculum and welcome Kamimura more warmly each year. And special congratulations to International Coordinator Aya Itazu, without whose months of tireless effort this visit simply would not be possible. Make sure your student enjoys summer with friends from Seattle and from many other countries. Choose sports, computers, academics, arts, criminal law, edible architecture, and much more, from July 7th to August 15th. Visit summer.northwestschool.org or call Ebon Craig Williams at 206-816-6002. Just in time for summer, we've added a new page to the "Students" section of our website called "Summer Opportunities." Check out this extensive list of programs in Seattle, across the country, and around the world. We'll update it as new information comes in from college campuses and other sources. Trumba is our dynamic new online calendar that allows NWS users to:

• "Hover" over events to quickly reveal details (location, etc…)
• Download desired events to Outlook, Blackberry, Phone, etc...
• Subscribe to get email event notifications and updates
• Change calendar views (month, week, day, and list)
• "Uncheck" (filter) calendars you don't want to see
• Scroll ahead by months through the entire year
• Search on specific calendar events
• Print out nicely formatted calendars

Trumba® Connect works with Microsoft® Windows, Apple® Mac OS®, Linux, and possibly other operating systems, as long as you use one of the following web browsers:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 + (not supported on Mac OS)
• Apple Safari™ 1.3.2 +
• Mozilla® Firefox® 1.5 +
• Opera 9 +

Please Note: Upgrading your browser is free. You should not need to purchase any other software or hardware to view our website. If after upgrading your browser with one of those listed above, you are still having difficulty viewing our calendars, please contact the Web Coordinator . Calendars: Upcoming Games
NWS Online Calendar
What's for Lunch? All .PDF files require the Acrobat Reader. Most browsers already include the plug-in for this application. You can download a free copy of the Acrobat Reader from the Adobe web site. * Please contact the Web Coordinator - - if you do not have the "username" and "password" needed to access the Secure Bulletin. ^ back to top