Camelot Update 10/28/12

Greetings!

Welcome to our newest student - kindergartener Robbie Bond (and his family) who have just moved here from Hawaii.

Congrats to our seniors who have been named as Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program. These students scored in the top 50,000 of the 1.5 million students who took the PSAT in October 2011: Devan Chichester, Zachariah Claypole White, Bri Oleson, William Radcliffe, Liz Reeder, Meg Rusconi-Warner and Josh Stallings. Also, congrats to senior Josh Pettway-Hinton who was named an Outstanding Participant in the National Achievement Scholarship Program (top 3% of more than 160,000 Black Americans who took the 2011 PSAT).

Way to Go, Camelot Soccer Knights, for the incredible tournament game last week! I heard many student and parent testimonials as to what an amazing show of skill and sportsmanship the team exhibited, including this description I received in an email from parent Dave Milkereit:

It was truly an event of mythical proportion. Camelot was outnumbered (20 to 9), with no subs, and they were out sized--all of the opposing team members were big. But with skill, heart, and teamwork, Camelot held its own, pushing the game into overtime. You've probably heard of historic battles described in which "uncommon valor was a common virtue." The game was like that for Camelot, and each kid was a hero many times over. The bar has now been lifted very high, for measuring any situation in which the odds are against us!

Kudos to Ms. Denise for orchestrating a fabulous Fall Festival for us all to enjoy last Sunday. Huge thanks to all of the parents and teachers who helped make it happen.

Thank you to Mr. Scott and Mr. Dan who have updated the photo gallery on our website with pictures of the Asheville trip, the Fall Festival, Lego Robostock and the excitement of taking our whole school picture with the help of a big crane and a brave photographer!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camelotacademy/sets/

Announcements:

Senior Zachariah Claypole White's band, The Arcadian Project, will be performing today (Sunday, October 28) at 4:30 PM at the Dead Mule, 303 West Franklin Street, in Chapel Hill. The performance celebrates the release of the band's new CD, Under a Cyanide Sky. The show is free and open to all ages.

The first edition of our new literary magazine, Broken Silence, is accepting submissions from students and faculty from now through November 12. Poetry, fiction,

essays, photography or artwork may be submitted per the guidelines of the submission form - available in the Big Hall upstairs or downstairs, or by request via email from me.

Mr. Mike is in need of lots of weekend help with leaf raking between now and the end of the calendar year. Please contact him at mike@camelotacademy.org.

Middle Grades students should be reminded:

- all Sound to Sea paperwork is due Monday and balances are due Thursday - please bring in terrarium supplies

Ms Judith wants to remind everyone to turn in their Artsonia form so that we can launch the Camelot Academy online art gallery. If you need another copy please email her directly at judith@camelotacademy.org.

Upcoming:

Tuesday - Furman University (SC) visits at 1 PM

Wednesday is Spirit Day - students may dress as their favorite book character. Please note that costumes of witches, ghosts, devils or anything gory or involving weapons of any kind are NOT school appropriate and should not be worn or brought to school.

Friday - Guilford College (NC) visits at 1 PM

Finally, Ms Lynne and I will spend our week getting Mid-Semester grades and comments ready for parents. For Middle Grades and Upper School students we are working to have this info available to you online using Achieve. I have spent much of the weekend working online with my sister, Donna (our Achieve Consultant Extraordinaire), to get things ready for our first time out-of-the-gate using this platform. The potential is exciting - the reality of implementing a bit daunting. As always, your patience and good humor are appreciated! Look for an email with instructions as to how to access the Mid Semester info by the end of this week. Kindergarten and MAPP families will receive their Mid-Semester info in the mail.

Have a great week!

Best,

Thelma

Camelot Update 10/21/12

Greetings!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the Fall Festival this afternoon (3-5 PM). Many thanks to Mr. Mike who single-handedly worked all day yesterday to prepare the grounds for this event. Also, many thanks to Ms. Denise (our chairwoman!) and her huge parent crew who look forward to sharing fun with everyone on this glorious day!

Speaking of glorious days - look at the fall colors in this picture of our whitewater rafters on the Asheville trip. Superstars Lynne Creel, Paul Creel and Michelle Banal led the trip ably assisted by wonder-parents Tracy Stell and Eddie O'Brien. Check our website later this week for great shots of their visit to the Biltmore House, Warren Wilson College, University of NC Asheville and - of course - rafting! These trips are a lot of work and a lot of responsibility but always a powerful reminder of the kind of learning, bonding and growing that occurs in this special dimension of the Camelot experience. To that end, I wanted to put in one last plug for the March England trip - it is an amazing itinerary - and we can accept a few more travelers.

Check out details and registration info here:

www.casterbridgetours.com/register

Use the following Trip ID: 84281

Our first honor roll/merit awards were announced in Morning Meeting this week. Camelot students have nine opportunities to receive this honor each year - once in Modules 2-10. (As you will recall, a module is approximately 15 class days - module start and end dates are noted on your school calendar.) Merit Awards are for students in 5th and 6th grade. Honor Roll is for students in 7th-12th grade. To achieve this distinction students must have a module free of Homework, Classwork, Make up or Behavior Notices and must be in attendance for greater than 80% of the class days. More details are provided in your Family Handbook.

Module 1/2 Merit recognition goes to: Kathleen Stancil-Sutton, Ray Palma, William Whetzel and Christopher Radcliffe.

Module 1/2 Honor Roll recognition goes to: Josh Stallings, Meg Rusconi-Warner, Liz Reeder, Josh Pettway-Hinton, Bri Oleson, Max Fried, Zachariah Claypole White, Rachel Roush, Brian Powell, Lyn Mattox, Ke Lu, Grace He, Olivia Arges, Spencer Ahn, Jenna Smith, Zack Milkereit, Fiona Castorina, Alex Berro, Sophie Reiter, Cole Kurtzman, Victoria Hill, Sarah Fauver, Leah Flood, Rachel Milkereit, David McShea, Richard Carruthers, Collin Wilkes, Willa Holt, Wyatt Grose, Virginia Bruhn, Briana Benkin and Grace Balk.

Congrats to our soccer Knights and to Coach Carlos on their win in the final game of the season on Tuesday vs. Triangle Collaborative School. They play in the League tournament this week - see our website for schedule details.

Kudos to the First Lego League (FLL) Teams who traveled yesterday for participation in RoboStock, a mock competition in Charlotte, NC. The friendly atmosphere allowed the three teams to test their robots under competition conditions, practice their project presentations, and learn from other FLL teams. Everyone left with helpful feedback to prepare for the regional qualifier tournaments in November. Team 88, The Cardboard Boxes, came in 3rd place for points scored and earned a trophy for their team effort! Special thanks to parents Jonathan Holt, Tina Sanders-Hill, Bob Sutton, David MacDonald, Matthew Son, Carole Bruhn, Tiffani Johnson and Chris Rusconi for driving and for helping out at the event! Congrats to our amazing coaches - Chris Wilkes, Robyn Stephens, and Amanda Fox. Check our website later this week for pictures!

IMPORTANT MONDAY ANNOUNCEMENT - this Monday's dance club will be moved to Wednesday to accommodate the soccer tournament. This change is for this week only - club finishes at 5 PM - pick up at 5:15.

IMPORTANT THURSDAY ANNOUNCEMENT - this is the NEW (yes, again) picture day for SENIOR PORTRAITS. In addition, this is the date for the WHOLE SCHOOL PICTURE - crane and all!

Also this Thursday is the date for the Class of 2013 to turn in completed college applications subject to a November 1 deadline!

I hope to see you this afternoon!

Best,

Thelma

Camelot Update 10/14/12-B

Greetings!  

111 conferences later and we are still smiling!  Thanks for your support of such an important agenda.  We find that our time with families begins and continues many substantive conversations and the message that we all send to our students that such communication is important enough to stop everything else has a palpable impact.  I was blown away by the ownership the students showed of their conference dynamics and by the constructive agendas that ensued.  As Ms. Jill so aptly noted on Friday, this time together is bonding for the faculty as well.  We learn a great deal about what is going on “across the hall” and  it is invigorating!

We return on Monday with to the hoopla of Picture Day!  Individual, class and whole school pictures will be taken.  Thank you, in advance, to Ms. Wendy for all of the work to plan a schedule that is minimally disruptive to classes and that accomplishes all that needs to be done in terms of individual, sibling, homeroom and group pictures.  Please send your student in attire suitable for appearance in our yearbook.  Also, please send in the picture order form that you received in conference.  Senior portraits will be taken on October 29.  This year, to commemorate our 30th anniversary and to fit us all into the whole school picture, we have hired a crane to soar into the air above us to capture our uplifted smiling faces.  Sounds memorable to me!

The Monday dance club is extending its meeting time until 5:00 PM.  Pick up from Camelot at 5:15 PM.  This will be the schedule for the rest if the semester.

On Tuesday our soccer team plays its last home game at 4:30 PM.  In honor of this milestone, we'll celebrate with a Wacky-Tacky Dress Day at school.  Also, Camelot will transport Middle and Upper School fans whose parents send me an email with permission to transport.  Everyone will need to be picked up from thePineywood Field at 5:30 PM.

Next weekend (Sunday, October 21, 3-5 PM) is our Fall Festival!  Following is an important note from Ms. Denise:

FALL FESTIVAL IS ONE WEEK AWAY!!!!  We have lots to do!  Parents who volunteered to help set up, clean up, or run a booth will be receiving an information sheet this week with the details of what they will be doing.  Lower School parents will be given information on things we need donated.   We will also be having a PIE-EATING CONTEST at 4:00 and need contestants!  If you would like to enter, see Ms. Denise for a sign-up sheet.  (Pies will be chocolate cream, and the cost to enter is $5).  Winner gets a $25 gift card.   And the last thing we will need parents to do is BAKE CAKES!  The Cake Walk turned out to be one of our most popular events last year.  We need baked goods for this year's Cake Walk.... cupcakes, brownies, cookies, etc that are individually wrapped.  These can be dropped off at the school any time Friday or on Sunday before the festival begins at 3:00.  Thank you very much!!!  ~Ms. Denise

Also next weekend all of our 10th and 11th graders will take the PSAT on campus.  On Saturday, students should follow all of the instructions sent via email to their parents.  Arrival is between 8:30 and 8:45 AM and pick up between 11:45 AM and noon.

Students traveling on the Asheville trip should arrive no later than 7:45 AM on Wednesday morning.  You should have received a separate email with packing and itinerary details.  Parents and students must have a Whitewater rafting permission slip on file in order to participate in that activity.

I hope that you have a great week and I look forward to seeing you next Sunday at the Fall Festival, if not before.

Best,

Thelma 

Camelot Update 10/7/12

Greetings!

Welcome to our newest student, eighth grader Brooke Hall and her family!

Congratulations to senior Zachariah Claypole White who has his poetry published in the most recent edition of The Best of KidspiritOnline (available for purchase at http:// www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/443624).

We are humbled and appreciative of the beautiful testimonial about Camelot Academy written by parent Matthew Son and featured online by the Durham Magazine.  You can check it out here:

http://www.durhammag.com/articles/finding-camelot

We wrapped up another busy week with outings to the production of War Horse at DPAC, PE trips to Defying Gravity and Cornwallis Park and special organizational/ planning classes with Ms Amy. We are looking forward to a productive round of family conferences this week during which time we have 111 conferences scheduled! Please be sure to arrive early and to come with your thoughts and questions ready to get the most out of your time with your student's teaching team. Kudos to Ms Lynne for all of her hard work pulling this complicated schedule together!

Thank you to all of the parents who are opening up your workplaces for our Upper School students to attend a job shadow this week. We are thrilled with the variety of experiences that our students have to choose from during these next few days. For many students the connection between their work in school and an exciting career possibility is extremely motivating and focusing. I believe the time and opportunity that Camelot students enjoy for such exploration is very valuable and I am indebted to Ms Lynne for coordinating this, on top of the family conference schedule.

This week there are NO UPPER SCHOOL CLASSES.

K, MAPP and Middle Grades will have classes on Monday and Tuesday, only. Please note that there will be NO CLUBS (except FLL on Monday) and there will be NO LUNCH SERVICE. Optional Care is available for Lower School students on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Please contact Ms. Wendy about availability.

Morning Study Skills classes with Ms Amy are available this week:

Upper School, Monday-Wednesday

Middle Grades, Thursday and Friday

Contact Ms. Wendy for sign up info.

On Monday, October 15 we will all return for....PICTURE DAY! More details to follow in the update I'll send next weekend. The week of the 15th is also the Asheville trip! Trip participants will receive an email this week with lunch options and packing details and a permission slip required for whitewater rafting.

Coming Up....Fall Festival! (Sunday, October 21). Mark your calendars for fun times and good memory-making!

I look forward to seeing you in conference!

Best,

Thelma