Heart to Heart: The Stuart Blog

  • Stuart Senior Scholar Charlotte La Nasa reads Ms. Nye's poetry to Kindergarten girls

    Naomi Shihab Nye and the Shawl

    From the Kindergarten Blog of Heidi Echternacht
    Posted April 3, 2012

    Every year we have a famous person come to our school for the Visiting Author Program. This year we welcomed Naomi Shihab Nye to our school. Here is one of the big girls reading us the book “Sitti’s Secrets.” Click here to read our Kindergarteners' poetry inspired by Ms. Nye.

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  • "How Do I Know When a Poem Is Finished?"

    Dr. Mia Manzulli, English Department
    Posted March 6, 2012

    The following entry is from Dr. Manzulli's Honors American Literature class blog on a wide assortment of American Poets. Read their blogs and their comments at http://stuartpoetryconnection.blogspot.com/


    When you quietly close
    the door to a room
    the room is not finished.

    It is resting. Temporarily.
    Glad to be with you
    for a while.

    Now it has time to gather
    its balls of gray dust,
    to pitch them from corner to corner.

    Now it seeps back into itself,
    unruffled and proud.
    Outlines grow firmer.

    When you return,
    you might move the stack of books,
    freshen the water for the roses.

    I think you could keep doing this
    forever. But the blue chair looks best
    with the red pillow. So you might as well
    leave it that way.

    Naomi Shihab Nye, Honeybee (New York: Greenwillow Books, 2008).

    I really love this poem. My daughter created a gorgeous collage to represent the ideas that Nye plays with in her writing. When is anything ever finished? Should it be?

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  • Sarah Lippman watches her fish swim while developing a math video game for the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge

    One more week to go

    By Alicia Testa, Computer Science & Math Teacher
    Posted March 2, 2012

    Ms. Testa's Grade 8 students are all developing video games as part of the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge. The following post was re-posted from Ms. Testa's blog about the project. Read more about Stuart's participation in the PBS KIDS Track of this competition.

    ***

    It has been a crazy week. I worked with the Biology classes to create climatograms and with the Juniors to start their poetry blog. In addition, yesterday I utilized advisory's study hall in order to check in with all the 8th grade students before they left today on a field trip to NYC.

    The majority of the games are progressing nicely. In fact two of the games are completed. They now are adding sound and other animations to make it look nicer but they have the programming done. Most others should be done by next friday. Others... well, there were a few who worked consistently but focused more on the splash page and not on the game and won't be done. I am not disappointed though. The majority of the girls worked on the games, and learned some programming. I am impressed on how hard most of them worked on learning how to program when they had zero programming knowledge when we started.

    I did give those who I don't think will be done the option to enter the writing competition. They felt relieved and said they would write the 1500 word essay. I am still proud of them they did learn some programming, but also learned about time management. Many re-arranged their programs to fit within the time constraint. Others added as they figured out one level and found ways to expand. We started to registar. Now I have to figure out how to upload them to a website, for the competition.

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  • Loaves and Fishes

    Loaves and Fishes

    JP Willis, Stuart Security Staff
    Posted January 30, 2012
    Saturday I had the privilege of going to St. Mary’s Cathedral with the Stuart community to work for Loaves and Fishes. I was so impressed at how well our Stuart girls worked. They always asked the leaders what they could next and weren’t afraid to jump in and get dirty. They had to overcome some initial fears as the staff threw them right into the mix, by having them deliver the morning sweets. This was no easy task as some of the gentleman were large and a bit aggressive at first, but our girls stood their ground and learned how to maneuver around the crowd. They greeted everyone with a smile and created a fun atmosphere for the kids. Loaves and Fishes may very well have their own signature drink now, “The Arnold Palmer.” I had a terrific time and I'm ready to go again.

    If you have not yet attended this event, I highly recommend it.

    Special Thanks to Doug and B.A.

    JP Willis

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  • On Abigail Borah's ('09) UN Experience

    Guest Blog, by Margaret Plantes
    Posted January 7, 2012

    In a recent letter to Anne Pierpont Margaret Plantes writes:

    The dust seems to have settled with Abigail in South Africa for the UN Climate Conference. I am proud of her courage and boldness, yet as you can surely understand, a bit concerned she doesn't get in over her head. Now that I know what it means to "go viral," my life feels changed. To see your child's name pop on on page after page of Google Search and Twitter--I don't even go on Facebook!--is a true wake up call. And, not surprisingly, Stuart's home page did a lovely job in showing her efforts.

    Abigail keeps being elected and selected at Middlebury and beyond, and I see this as truly rooted in her Stuart preparation in the classroom, on the field, and on the stage. I reflect often on how Stuart teaches girls how to be good friends and followers, first and foremost, in their formation as leaders. That a preschooler can watch a fifth grader or an Upper School senior on stage or on television...well, it just gives her a chance to see what is possible for her, if she just keeps following along the path ahead. Sadly, I think today's parents do not understand this. Often they need to have their children be instant leaders or the #1 consistently. And that is not how to best form a leader or good solid character. I was so fortunate that women like you, Sr. de la, Ronnie Williams, Patty Schorr , Jan Baldwin and Anne Soos, could be there to teach me this--then prove it, by providing my girls with the means to succeed.

    When I listened to my daughter's voice in an NPR interview after her "intervention," it was not the voice of the girl who started at Stuart, but the voice of the girl who graduated and was launched from there. She was "well begun," as St. Madeleine Sophie would have wanted. http://stream.loe.org/audio/111209/111209borah.mp3 She sounds so strong, poised and determined to make a difference.

    - How has Stuart helped to launch you or your daughter?

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Welcome to the Stuart Blog where we invite you to share ideas about faith, education and community, all grounded here at Stuart in the Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria and our rich Stuart history and traditions.

"When I listened to my daughter's voice in an NPR interview after her "intervention," it was not the voice of the girl who started at Stuart, but the voice of the girl who graduated and was launched from there. She was "well begun," as St. Madeleine Sophie would have wanted."

- Margaret Plantes
Mother of Abigail Borah '09