http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/RSS/RSSLogo.jpghttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/144144The latest news and events from Whitefield Academyhttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssen-usMon, 29 Dec 2008 20:05:00 GMTWed, 23 July 2008 12:33:00 GMThannahp@whitefieldacademy.com60rayc@whitefieldacademy.comhttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/Invitation.aspx?id=55http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/Invitation.aspx?id=55window.location.href="Auction2008.aspx";]]>Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:57:40 GMThttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/Invitation.aspx?id=61http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/Invitation.aspx?id=61Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:16:45 GMThttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/Invitation.aspx?id=60http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/Invitation.aspx?id=60
Please stop by this Winter Art Show at any time during regular school hours and see the accomplishments of these talented, hard-working students. Also on display are the 2008 Scholastic Art Award Winners!

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http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/FinancialAid.aspx]]>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:33:00 GMThttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1738http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1738
The club at Whitefield is open to students in 6th – 12th grades. Jacob Fikse, a 6th grade student who joined the group this year says, “Robotics club is cool. We get the chance to be creative in building and programming robots. Sharing ideas and programming techniques with others in the club helps us to build more complicated Mindstorms® robots.”

Senior Jimmy LeCraw offers another perspective, “Robotics is fun for me because it reminds me of my childhood full of Legos. And I love seeing the change in technology over the years. I used to know Legos as basic blocks you could build houses or cars with; now you can make robots that move in any way you want them to. It’s unbelievable.”

Robotics Club meets monthly. If you are interested in joining, watch for signs posted in the Upper School or contact faculty sponsor Kyle Justice at kylej@whitefieldacademy.com.
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The faculty and staff are grateful for the expressions of love and appreciation that so many members of the Whitefield community extended during the joyful season of Christmas.
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Each Monday after school, 42 students from the Lower School gather to play chess in the after-school chess classes taught by Kyle and his wife, Susan. Susan commented, “It really amazes me that Lower School students enjoy sitting down and concentrating on chess after a long day of school—but they really do.”

Another highlight of our active chess program is that games cross age boundaries. Middle and Upper School students sometimes volunteer to play with younger students for fun and even for competition.

Whitefield will field two teams in the upcoming regional tournament, a K-3rd grade team and a k-5th grade team. Placing at the regional tournament qualifies teams to enter state-level competition; both teams are contenders. Last year our K-3rd grade team placed 5th in the region and 7th in the state. Kyle will coach the teams at both the regional and state levels.

Kyle and Susan have two sons in the Lower School, Zachary Justice (’19) and Daniel Justice (’17), and both have played in the National Elementary Chess Championship for the last two years. Zachary placed 14th in the nation last summer.

Kyle and Susan will lead Chess Camp during our summer program. Sign up early because it will fill quickly. Chess is a popular pursuit at Whitefield!
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In the fall, the leader of the Lassiter High School Orchestra, a national award-winning high school orchestra, invited Tinsley to join Lassiter’s orchestra as a harpist. Tinsley practiced Mondays after school with the high school musicians.

The orchestra was invited to perform at the Midwest Clinic before the world’s leading music educators, a crowd of over 500. One piece featured Tinsley as the opening soloist; an ovation followed. Then the busy seventh grader headed back for a merry Christmas in Atlanta with her family.
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Most Whitefield students visit numerous campuses before they make their final college decisions. Our College Counseling Office plans college tours throughout the year for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Cost is kept to a minimum so that all interested students may attend.

In early January, a group of our students will take a CAROLINA COLLEGE TOUR visiting Gardner-Webb University, Elon College, Davidson College, Duke, High Point University, and UNC. (Mrs. Parks promises to keep her Carolina Blue passion to herself.) Another group of prospective co-eds attended a college trip to the Chicago area this fall. Billed as “BE BLOWN AWAY BY THE WINDY CITY SCHOOLS,” this trip offered the opportunity to experience Wheaton College, Lake Forest College, Northwestern University, North Park University, and the University of Chicago. Trip destinations change annually as we expose our students to the maximum number of colleges and we expose select colleges to the maximum number of Whitefield students—it works both ways. Measure our success and our students’ success by the list of schools that have accepted Whitefield Academy graduates linked below.

Diary of a college tour: The Chicago Trip-une
By College Counselor, Diana Parks

Friday, October 10th – Foregoing a prime opportunity to sleep in on a rare school holiday, the Chicago bound troop met at the airport at 5:15 am to embark on the first Whitefield college tour of 2008-2009. By mid-morning, we were walking the campus at the University of Chicago. Shelton, our tour guide, gave knowledgeable statistics interspersed with a little trashtalk about the school up the road (Northwestern) and a few fun facts such as the detail that Presidential candidate Barak Obama is technically still on the faculty at the university; he is and has been on “a leave of absence.” Shelton veered off the beaten path to take us into the building donated by the Tootsie Roll family, primarily to partake of the bowls of tootsie rolls set out in the foyer. Approximately 500 undergrads attend class in the heart of Chicago, study in the Harry Potter-style library, and earn the reputation of a deep-thinking and rigorously academic student body. We were treated to lunch in their gym-turned-dining hall facility; the food and the atmosphere impressed us all.

Entering Wheaton’s address into Mrs. Parks’ new favorite friend, the rented Garmon GPS system from Enterprise, we struck out for our second school of the day. The toll system in Chicago puts GA 400 to shame and only once did Mrs. Parks cruise through the I-Pass lane instead of paying cash (not intentional). We arrived on Wheaton’s campus on certainly the most beautiful October afternoon Chicago has ever known. Under golden leaves and seventy degrees, students were playing bocci ball on this lawn, croquet on that lawn, and Frisbee golf in between. We attended a packed information session and learned of the commitment academically and spiritually of the Wheaton students as well as the study abroad fervor that most of them possess. During the tour, our guide was embellishing on the bell tower when around the corner walked five guys, each brandishing a different musical instrument. The harmonica player asked if they could sing our group a song. The guide, baffled and claiming this was not part of the tour, agreed. The group played away as the guitarist made up lyrics about having a good tour and hoping we’d all come to Wheaton. Twenty seconds later, the wandering minstrels finished, waved, and continued on to find other prey. I drove away from Wheaton with several converts. We checked into the Hyatt downtown, mingling with hundreds of Chicago marathon-ers. The clerk recommended a Chicago-style pizza place within walking distance, which we sought out after throwing our luggage in our rooms. The 4:30 am day caught up with all of us and we crashed relatively early.

Saturday, October 11th - We raided the coffee bar on the first floor of the hotel before driving along Lake Shore Drive with Lake Michigan on our right, heading north a short distance to Northwestern University. Another gorgeous fall morning with atypically warm weather shed a magical light on yet another college campus. The information session was packed with over a hundred other interested “lookers.” The Northwestern representative augmented the power point presentation with enough emphasis on the school’s academic rigor to create a few tremors and tics in my traveling companions. By the time the walking tour around campus began, the only member of our troupe with a specific interest in Northwestern’s renowned department of film studies considered it an option. Even the cheers of the university’s marching band that we passed as they prepared for their home game didn’t sway opinions.

On to our fourth college in two days, we reset the trusty GPS system in our rented minivan and headed to Lake Forest College. The director of admissions had made prior arrangements for a student to meet us for a private tour despite the fact that the admissions office was closed. Our guide regaled us with relevant academic information about the liberal arts curriculum as well as fun facts about the residence hall that was originally built as a hospital and nurse’s quarters during the Civil War, justifying the extra wide halls necessary for gurneys, etc. With a myriad of internships available in nearby Chicago and Lake Forest’s dedication to the areas such as computer science, theater, writing, and modern languages, the college offers something for everyone looking for a strong liberal arts education.

By the end of our fourth tour, my traveling companions teetered on college overload lunacy and welcomed the breather that Sunday would bring. Once refreshed at the hotel, they struck out for Navy Pier, a not-to-be-missed playground extending into Lake Michigan in the heart of downtown Chicago, complete with a ferris wheel. They crashed back at the hotel and were still sleeping the next morning while outside their hotel windows, 33,000 people ran by in the Chicago Marathon.

Sunday, October 12th - Sunday proved as glorious as the preceding days and we enjoyed walking the Magnificent Mile and milling among the thousands of weary but exultant runners. Time came for the van to make its last trek to a college campus. We drove through a new part of Chicago to the campus of North Park University. The kids were wary of the area and anxious about being split up to stay with designated students in their dorms. In fact, they begged me not to leave them there. Nevertheless, we ventured in for dinner and their “Focus Day” orientation. The room was abuzz with happy and outgoing students. By the time I left, I saw far fewer looks of apprehension.

Monday, October 13th - When I returned the next morning for the program, our kids were bright-eyed, talkative, and excited about the mission and the opportunities at North Park. Our senior told me he intended to apply and our sophomore indicated she’d be doing the same in a few years. What a tangible example we received of the importance of getting on campus, staying overnight, and seeing past the façade. After wedging suitcases into the back of the van, we bee-lined it to the airport. With Chicago fading in our tail lights and Atlanta looming in the horizon, one diligent student pulled out The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from her backpack while another dug Canterbury Tales from hers. Echoes from the offices of college admissions of the importance for good grades and strong skills must have rung in their heads. I didn’t have to say a thing; I put my head back and closed my eyes. ]]>Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:48:00 GMThttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1734http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1734
Señora Tolford, Lower School spanish teacher, recently invited parent Brenda Cruz, mother of Isabel Hill, to visit first grade students on three occasions to share cultural experiences. She taught the students about Christmas traditions from her native country of Puerto Rico, where she and her daughter will spend the next few weeks. For her last visit, the first graders came together for a lively review game of her teachings called ‘Matamoscas’ (Flyswaters).
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FCS Urban Ministries, sponsor of the Family Store, is a Christian community development organization that partners with declining inner-city neighborhoods to bring about social, economic, and spiritual rebirth. For more information, visit their web page at http://www.fcsministries.org/ministries.htm. Feed My Lambs seeks to open tuition-free christian schools in economically challenged and impoverished areas. Read more about Feed My Lambs at http://www.feedmylambs.net.

Leigh Woods, Community Service Coordinator for Whitefield Academy, commented on the generosity of the Lower School students, “They brought toys and bikes—and one Kindergarten student with a generous heart, Corrie Lemasters, went to her parents with a plan to do chores so she could earn the money to purchase a wonderful present herself.”
]]>Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:52:00 GMThttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1728http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1728Due to unpredictable weather in January and February, Mileage Club is being replaced with Jump for Fun until March. Ms. Virrill, the LS physical education teacher, will supervise this activity in the LSSAC. Jump for Fun will meet Mondays at 7:30 a.m. and Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. All Lower School students are welcome to attend. Adult supervision is recommended for Pre-K and K students. There is no sign-up--just come when you can!

Carpool Procedures:

1. Students may be dropped off on Mondays at 7:30 a.m. and on Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. No one will be admitted to jump after 8:45 a.m.
2. Students in Pre-K and K who are participating in Jump Rope Club need to have a parent with them. Please park in the large parking lot in front of the tennis courts.
3. Students in 1st -5th grade may attend Jump Rope Club without a parent. Please follow drop off procedures.
4. The drop off point for students in 1st-5th is the sidewalk in front of the LSSAC building (at the crosswalk where the LSSAC faces the Athletic Center). Please enter the school from Pebblebrook and park curbside. Escort your child into the LSSAC and leave promptly turning left toward the track and exiting out Buckner. Please move your car before carpool begins. If you plan to stay, please park in front of the tennis courts, NOT curbside.

Benefits:
According to the American Heart Association, “Jumping Rope May Be an Ideal Brain Exercise” for these reasons:

• Raising the heart rate gets more blood to the brain, feeding it nutrients and oxygen for increased alertness and mental focus.
• Jumping rope is an exercise that allows both brain hemispheres to perform parallel.
• The vestibular system that creates spatial awareness and mental alertness is strengthened through activities such as jumping rope.
• Rhythmic aspects of jumping rope can develop internal dialogue needed to establish basic reading skills.
• Beat awareness and beat competency simulate the basic rhythm patterns of our language that need to be established for better language acquisition.
• Physical activity reduces stress.

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Jin Hyung Park, known as “Thomas” at school, has jumped into Whitefield and onto the basketball court playing with our JV squad under Coach Matt Petersen. Thomas says Whitefield basketball has brought his game up a level. David and Diana Parks and their sons Forrest (‘10) and Tanner (’12) have welcomed Thomas into their home. Their close proximity to the school helps Thomas stay involved. Diana, College Counselor at Whitefield, said, “Thomas jumped right in as part of our family. Fascinating discussions about cultural differences make dinners particularly fun (and humorous.) Thomas even contributed Korean rice cakes to the dessert table at Thanksgiving.”

Sujin Park (no relation to Thomas) settled at the Kerr home with Anne, Greg and their daughter Meredith (’09). Sujin says the opportunity to live with an American family is helping her English tremendously. Though she is thrilled about a trip home to Korea for the holidays, Sujin enjoys Whitefield. Playing the keyboard for Whitefield’s Jazz Band is just one of the ways that she contributes to our community.

Jin Yunj Kim, known as “Roy” at school, lives with sophomore Nigel Kim (no relation) and his parents Daisup and Anne. Roy is all smiles when he talks about his Whitefield experience. He is especially looking forward to playing Varsity Soccer in the spring. When asked about hosting an international student, Nigel said, “We really help each other—we talk about things that happen at school. We’ve had a few chats about life in Korea. I’ve never been, but my parents were born there. It’s good!”

Thomas and Roy will be spending the holidays in the States. Please extend your warm welcome and hospitality to these fine young students if you have the opportunity.
]]>Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:12:00 GMThttp://www.whitefieldacademy.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1724http://www.whitefieldacademy.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1724Poor Richard’s Almanac? You’ll have to tune in to WSB Channel 2 on Sunday, December 28 at 12:30—or catch James Lovas in the hall and ask about his game-winning answer. Whitefield nipped Pace in the final minute 485 – 465. Congratulations to Captain Katelyn Hollingsworth, Ethan Boswell, James Lovas, Hunter Johnson, and our High Q coach, Karren Richardson.

High Q is a question-and-answer game show that appears weekly on WSB-TV Channel 2. Now in its 23rd year, the weekly program features scholastic competition between high school students from north Georgia. Students answer dozens of questions on a wide range of subjects including history, math, literature, science, the arts, and current events.

The next WA High Q competition will be in February—watch for details.
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Please see the media gallery to view excerpts from the morning show.]]>Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:34:00 GMT