Les Français Arrivent

After our CHCS French students spent an incredibly welcoming and enriching 10 days during Spring break at the private school of L’Institut Stanislas in Nice, France with their French hosts, we reciprocated this past May 19-26^th.  Students from both sides could not wait to see one another again as witnessed by all the hugging and kissing the day they reconnected.

It was an incredible success and many lifelong friendships were begun. They discovered the VB aquarium, saw dolphins swimming off the coast, ate in the café dolphin (which they loved especially the ice cream). In D.C. they visited the Lincoln, Washington, and Vietnam Memorials, the American History museum, and saw the White House. They sat in on the Upper School classes, were invited to talk about their culture and daily life with Lower and Middle School classes, ate bbq, pizza, ice-cream and went shopping of course. Some wanted to know how they can get to come to school here!  Here are some direct quotes from the French students themselves:

“I spent an amazing week” Clemence Binet

“It was much better than a dream, so amazing, I love you American people” Ugo Devillers

“I can just say: I LOVE VIRGINIA BEACH!” Chrismy Sergent

“This trip was so magic. Thank you all for your perfect welcome in this fabulous country.  And in particular thanks for all this food… always present and so good” Charlotte

“Arriving at Virginia Beach, I have had a sensation of happiness. I love people of the USA, they are very kind and cool and I would like to come back in the first power of the world! Romain Vinci

AND OUR OWN CHCS students
From this experience I learned how to adapt to and get along with different people, but realize that at the same time they are also very similar, despite differnet nationalities and cultures.  -gerrit

This adventure let me make some really great friends from a different country, which strangely people here are having a hard time understanding. If im asked if they understood american jokes again, i think i’ll go crazy. –marina

I enjoyed this experience very much, interacting with a different culture was fascinating and will jump at the opportunity to do it again. -Phil   Thr French students were all very nice. Seeing their school was fun.  I also enjoyed touring the French around our area and watching their reactions. For example how shocked they were at the size of the tubs of ice cream at the grocery store.- Lauren   I am really glad that I signed up for the French exchange program.  It was one of the best experience sof my life!.  At first I was really nervous about going to a foreign country and staying with a family I didn’t know.  In the end I had a lot of fun and it was great to have the french kids come to the US and understand the American culture.  From this experience I can truly say I have a lots of stories and wonderful new friends. – Kristin   I had sucha great time that I am going to spend some time in France this summer with my exchange student and she will be coming back this summer to spend 2 weeks with me. - Elizabeth

I am excited  to announce that CHCS is to receive the Lynnhaven River NOW Pearl School Award for Excellence in Environmental Education in the 2009 – 2010 school year. The projects of water monitoring, oyster gardening, growing wetland plants in the classroom, maintaining a butterfly garden, hosting environmental workshops, and the school wide recycling program has earned us the award for the second year in a row.  Thank you to all of the teachers and students who have put in such hard work this year. Our continued commitment to environmental education helps to instill a sense of responsibility and stewardship in our students towards the world around them.

We weren’t the only ones enjoying the produce on Friday! Attached you will find a picture of a new resident to our garden. It is the caterpillar of the Black Swallowtail (butterfly pic below) munching on our parsley. I found a few of these caterpillars in the garden. So, when we harvest for our cafe, just remember that we are sharing our garden with nature!

I’d also like to take this time to give props to Pam Northam. Without her working hard each year to maintain the garden (purchasing the plants, planting, mulching, watering, weeding, etc), we wouldn’t reap all the rewards that we do. So, thanks, Pam!

My FST class used homemade clinometers, meter sticks, and right triangle
trig to measure the height of the flag pole today.  Each group measured the
distance they were standing from the flag pole, the height of “eye level” of
the person with the clinometer, and using the clinometer, each group
measured their angle of elevation.  Our results varied, but it was a good
review and practical application of trig.

Each group drew a picture and calculated the height of the flag pole based
off of their results.

The 2010 Forensics Tournament was held this past Sunday at Hampton Roads Academy and WOW, our students were amazing.

The final results were CHCS winning first place in both divisions of the tournament. A feat that has never been accomplished in the Robert Sergeant Forensics tournament history.

Individual Team  medals were award to the following students:

Grades 4,5 and 6

First place         Rex Serpe Boys Oratory

Call back           Jowan Albon Boys Prose

2^nd place             Gavin Cutrino Boys Poetry

3^rd place              Tom Crow Boys Poetry

3^rd place              Wesley McKee Girls Oratory

Call back           Lexi Owens Girls Prose

1^st place                Alexia Fard Girls Prose

1^st place               Cecilia Jakovljevic Girls Poetry

Call back           Sophia Karides Girls Poetry

1^st place               Carleigh Saunders Story Telling

2^nd place              Catherine Bingham Story Telling

Graders 7,8

1^st place               Aleksander Salvon-Harmon Boys Oratory

3^rd place              Brian Murray Boys Prose

1^st place               Jake Kantor  Boys Poetry

2^nd place             Georgios Karides  Boys Prose

1^st place               Georgia Breit Girls Prose

1^st place               Julia Rosenblum Girls Poetry

2^nd place             Jenny Lefcoe Girls Poetry

2^nd place             Maddy Spear Story Telling

3^rd place              Freeman Wood Story Telling

The general question that the Court must decide is whether or not people who sign petitions have the right to privacy, or whether their names should be released to the public. Representing the petitioners John Doe and Protect Marriage Washington, Nikki Mandell and Meredith Wallace, with research assistance from Will Merritt, argued that signing a petition is protected speech under the First Amendment and should be treated privately just as voting has traditionally been private. They shared the concern that the petition-signers could face harassment and that as a result, the freedom of “core political speech” could be chilled.

Representing the respondents, Sam Reed et al., Lauren Devendorf and Andy Russo, with research assistance from Robert Ashford, argued that petition-signers automatically release their identities when they sign a petition, that it should be treated as a public legislative act, and that releasing the names to the public allows the public to verify that the signatures are valid and that fraud has not taken place.

As each” lawyer” argued his or her case, they were frequently stopped with questions that challenged them to back up specific statements and address contradictions. One particularly interesting question was whether or not Reed would maintain the same argument if we were in 1960, and it was the KKK asking for the names of those who had signed a document for Civil Rights. The students did an outstanding job responding professionally in what was surely a very intimidating situation. When they were unable to answer a question directly, they skillfully brought the answer back to one of their original points.

Interestingly, before the mock trial, the AP class wrote a survey asking students to reveal their beliefs about the right to gay marriage, which is what the petition in question was about, and were optionally allowed to write their names. This was done in an effort to see how many students were willing to release their identity in cooperation with their statement of belief. Only 46% of those who completed the survey wrote their names, which may be relevant in considering whether or not a petition-signer has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Many thanks to Scott McGraw, who organized this invaluable program, Matt Remmie, who hosted, Kristin Hopkins, who presented the facts, George Radford and Brigid Skorup, who presented the student survey results, Marina Royston, who designed the program, and of course the aforementioned lawyers, research assistants, and judges, for all they did to help us understand the case and the authentic, legal procedure that will be taking place on Wednesday. The lawyers and Robert Ashford are headed to Washington to see the actual case, and we are anxiously awaiting the decision of the CHCS Supreme Court, which is expected in a few weeks.