Moments from the Penultimate Week of School

It is only a four-day week this week because of Memorial Day on Monday, but we have squeezed a lot in! Unfortunately, "we" (meaning "I" had to make the final decision) had to cancel Lower School Track and Field Day due to rain and soaked fields--the first T+F Day cancellation in my tenure. Mrs. Sewell and Mr. Vorsteg will do their best to get in as many events as possible during the remaining PE classes. Also this week....Middle School exams, Pilot Class Fathers' Day Coffee, 10th Age Closing Exercises practices, the final Board of Trustees and Alumni Board meetings of the year, and a terrific retirement party last night for Eileen Batt, Debbie Frey, Marie-Camille Havard, and Karen Burdnell!

I also had the pleasure of having four 7th graders in my office...and no, they were not in trouble! They won "lunch in Mr. Martire's office" at the Middle School points auction. We enjoyed some delicious Eddie's sandwiches (I had the cobb salad wrap without onions--always a good choice) and talked about exams and summer plans. It was an enjoyable lunch during a very busy day. You can see the happy boys in the picture below.

Lacrosse Fever!

On Wednesday, the 10th Age Girls played their Crow-Canary lacrosse game on the Krongard Field at the Middle School. At Calvert, Lower School girls are divided into Crows and Canaries and the boys into Hoppers and Crickets. These teams serve as useful groupings in physical education; moreover, in 9th and 10th Age, there are Crow-Canary and Hopper-Cricket games in a variety of sports to which parents are invited. The girls did a great job on Wednesday under beautiful blue skies!

A day later, the Middle Schools boys' team took their 11-0 record to Loyola for the last game of the year. While the 11-7 loss prevented the boys from finishing with an undefeated record, the team played hard the whole game and had an excellent season in many, many ways. I was proud to watch their competitiveness and team spirit yesterday and all season long. Congratulations to players and to Coaches Skeen and Broy!

Please enjoy the pictures below. I am sure you figure out which ones are from which game!

Sprinting to the finish...but enjoying the race!

Two weeks from today, we celebrate Lower School closing exercises, and the day after, June 4, we will hold graduation ceremonies for the 8th graders on the front lawn of Castalia. In between now and then, there will be a host of events, activities, and parties. Today is an example of the busy pace on campus: new student and parent orientation for Pilot Class and 6th Age, Parents' Association volunteer recognition lunch, 10th Age Crow-Canary lacrosse game on the Krongard Field at the Middle School, and the Middle School Athletics Banquet in the evening! As we round the turn and sprint to the finish, we need to enjoy the race. We need to savor the special moments, the relationships, the learning, and the many memories from the 2008-09 school year. In short, as we have our gaze fixated on the finish line, let's wave to the crowd and soak in every ounce of the atmosphere.

Mothers' or Mother's??

In my post below about the Pilot Class Tea, I chose to use the plural possessive: Mothers'. (I know I should probably put quotation marks around Mothers', but it becomes hard to see the apostrophe!). I understand that the common spelling for "Mothers' Day" is "Mother's Day," but I cannot accept that spelling since, to my knowledge, there are tens of millions of mothers in the United States, making it one of the easiest singular vs. plural possessive decisions one will encounter! I will change it to the singular possessive only under the direction of one the following Calvert teachers: Jim Coady, current 10th Age boys' (note the plural possessive) homeroom teacher, 41 years at Calvert; Judy Rice, spelling, grammar, and composition guru from 1978-2008; or Betsy Cissel, who roamed the Lower School halls from 1955-1986 dispensing her "tough love" approach to grammar, writing, and all things Calvert. Until then, I shall use the following spelling: Mothers' Day!

Mothers' Day Tea Always a Crowd Pleaser

The annual Pilot Class Mothers' Day Tea is always a tear-jerking, wonderful event for both students and and parents alike. This year's Tea, held on May 8, was no different! The children performed several songs, including "Silhouette Child" and "I Am a Gift," and then shared gifts and stories with their mothers.

March Reading Madness Assembly

The Lower School Auditorium was buzzing with excitement this morning for the March Reading Madness assembly. Our librarian extraordinaire, Mrs. Tina Thomas, is the creator and organizer of this great program, and each year, it gets even better. Mrs. Thomas tallied the pages and books and recognized the top three readers in each homeroom as well as the top reading boys' and girls' homeroom at each grade level. The grand total was an amazing 6,867 books read during the month of March! The 6th Age alone read an incredible 2,398 books. Next year, we should shoot for 7,000 books! Thanks again to Mrs. Thomas for her dedication and excellence.