Last Updated: 7:28 am, August 27, 2010

Author Archives: Meredith McMahon

Published:

8/18
2010

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77 days of summer

By Meredith McMahon
During the summer, many CHS students escaped the 'Clayton Bubble' and explored new states, regions, and countries.

During the summer, many CHS students escaped the 'Clayton Bubble' and explored new states, regions, and countries.

Summer is a time for relaxation and is a perfect opportunity for CHS students to get away from the ‘Clayton Bubble’ to explore, learn, and have a great time while traveling. Whether they traveled to Fulton, MO to horseback ride or to India to study water levels of contamination, CHS students certainly had very exciting summers.

Some students, like senior Henry Myers, took time to improve their skills at different camps. Myers spent seven weeks of his summer to improve his musical skills playing the cello at Meadowmount Music Camp in upstate New York.

“Meadowmount is essentially a musical boot camp. You go there to take lessons with famous teachers and practice incredible amounts, causing you to improve dramatically,” Myers said. “. . .[There] I figured out how to practice, and when I got back I realized how hard I wanted to work.”

Sophomore Leslie Goodman also went to a camp to improve her horseback riding skills. Goodman attended William Woods Summer Riding Program this summer for six days, located in Fulton, Missouri on the William Woods University campus.

“I learned a ton about how to ride my horse better and teach my horse new techniques,” Goodman said. “I’ve taught my horse I ride at home all the new exercises I have learned and use the skills I learned with my teacher to ride courses better.”

Some students used time in their summer to visit colleges, like senior Becca Steinberg. Steinberg visited Harvard, MIT, Yale, Columbia, Swarthmore and Princeton. In addition to visiting colleges, Steinberg enjoyed visiting tourism sites such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and seeing “West Side Story” on Broadway.

“Harvard was more exciting than I expected it to be- there were lots of people everywhere and I enjoyed the urban atmosphere. . . [Yale] was beautiful, and New Haven really isn’t as bad as everybody says it is,” Steinberg said.
Sophomore Meredith Joseph went to Costa Rica on an Eco Quest called Passport to the World with the Bnai Brith Youth Organization. The purpose of the program was to explore Costa Rica and learn about eco-friendliness and sustainability.

Joseph had a great time exploring the country and meeting kids from all around the country who went on the program. Her group enjoyed different tourism sites, including a place called Rancho Margot and visiting an organic farm adjacent to a volcano.

“My favorite experience was probably the zip line,” Joseph said. “We did a zip line over the treetops of Costa Rica and it was such a beautiful view.”

Some students, like senior Elle Jacobs, found themselves taking multiple trips during the summer. Jacobs went to New York City, volunteered to work at an orphanage and a dentist office for a week and a half in Peru and then vacationed in Italy for two weeks with her family. Jacobs found that she learned the most in Peru because she was able to practice her Spanish there as well as learned a lot about medicine. Not only was it an educational trip, but it also related to her life back in St. Louis.

“Peru was a huge influence on my life because I have a lot of new friends from Peru and because I worked in a dentist office which I really enjoyed,” Jacobs said. “Because I enjoyed it so much, I will continue working in a dentist office here in St. Louis.”

Students like senior Ali Meyer and senior Helen Wiley immersed themselves in languages by living abroad. Meyer participated in a homestay in France for about six weeks with the program “Experiment International Living” in order to improve her language skills.

“I spent my days exploring Paris, hiking and canoeing in St. Rome, taking classes at a language school, and taking courses at a cooking school,” Meyers said. “But most importantly, my days were spent listening . . . Soaking up the language and the culture. I’ve never slept more soundly in my life after an entire day in French.”

Wiley immersed herself in Spanish by traveling to Nicaragua for a month. Wiley traveled to a rural area outside of the city Esteli and stayed with a school teacher and her six year old daughter during the weekdays for the beginning of the trip. She also stayed with friends of her father’s.

“During the week I volunteered in one of the local high schools and later in one of the local elementary schools in the morning,” Wiley said. “In the afternoon I would take Spanish classes for four hours in town with a teacher. . . The idea was total immersion.”

Wiley would spend weekends traveling to other parts of the country, so she got a feel for the culture of Nicaragua. One of her favorite experiences was hiking up to the top of volcano Momcacho, a no longer active volcano that has rainforest growing atop it.

“The rural farm area where I was living was one of the prettiest places I’ve been,” Wiley said.

Other students, like senior Sarah McAfee, found beautiful landscapes here within the U.S. McAfee went to the AMK Research Ranch in the Teton Mountain Range in Wyoming.  She was accompanied by CHS teachers Mr. Collis, Mrs. Storms and CHS students senior Alex Breckenridge, senior Lily Gage and senior Tanner Schertler.

“I decided to go because Mr. Collis came into my bio class to recruit applicants,” McAfee said. “He explained what we would be doing and where, and it sounded really exciting. I really like the outdoors and environmental sciences, so this seemed like a great learning opportunity since it was almost entirely field research.”

McAfee had a great experience researching in the field.

“During the day we hiked or met with specialists in the area to learn about the environment and conservation methods,” McAfee said. “We also read a lot. At night, we went out into fields of sagebrush to collect and record data about Cyphoderris Strepitans, commonly known as the Sagebrush cricket. We were helping in multiple studies with acclaimed scientists and professors who treated us like adults, and actually going out in the field. It was incredible.”

While McAfee and other CHS students were helping a team of scientists study the Sagebrush cricket, senior Sagar Yadama also helped conduct research, but on the other side of the globe. Yadama went to India to participate in his internship with a Non-Government Organization called the Foundation for Ecological Security for six weeks, starting June 8 and ending July 20.

“My project itself dealt with surveying the water quality in the different wells in the village of Salri,” Yadama said. “Every day I commuted to the village at five or six in the morning and then traveled to each well to get water samples and test the water.”

To test the water Yadama had a briefcase with test kits that would test the water for pH, nitrate concentration, dissolved oxygen content, and total dissolved solids, among other substances.

“My main focus was on nitrate concentration because the fertilizers used by the villagers have high nitrate concentrations that could contaminate the wells nearby,” Yadama said. “Nitrate in water is unhealthy and leads to many different diseases, especially in infants.”

After Yadama collected the water and conducted tests, he sent the water back to labs in Udaipur, a city in Rajasthan. The lab sent him back the results.

“Generally, the water quality is pretty bad,” Yadama said. “Nitrate was not very high but it was at a critical level and could become dangerous. Iron and copper were at critical levels as well. Phosphorus on the other hand was huge.”

This leads to eutrophication, and algal blooms in the water that is a major cause of diarrhea and sometimes paralysis.

In India, especially villages like Salri, diarrhea is a major cause of death. People become dehydrated because of it and this coupled with the lack of medication and intense heat is lethal.”

Overall, Yadama found that even though his summer work wasn’t revolutionary, he could still effect change in a small community and aid the FES in its goal to improve people’s water conditions.

“I am not going to say that my work changed the world and that I changed Salri forever,” Yadama said. “I found out what is wrong with their water and what can be done to decrease mortality rates in Salri. I do believe that I made a difference in that village by identifying which wells are polluted and which should be used for drinking.

Additionally, FES will use this research to improve the livelihoods of not only people in Salri but in other villages.” The poor water conditions in Salri inspired Yadama to take a further step.

“Through this internship I made the decision to pursue engineering in college,” Yadama said.

Other CHS travelers also agree that their trips had incredible influence on them. Goodman thought that her camp experience would improve her horseback riding skills at home.

“While I was at camp I was able to better understand my goals in the horseback riding show world,” Goodman said. “This has helped me to now decide and better understand the steps I need to take to reach my goals.”

Myers agreed that what he learned would be very influential in the long run.

“I learned an incredible amount this summer, but if anything stands out it’s that I learned how to practice efficiently, which is the most important thing you can possibly learn how to do in the long term,” Myers said.

Meyer’s homestay in France taught her even more than what she expected.

“In the end, my trip to France taught me so much more than just language,” Meyer said. “I had to learn very quickly to stop fearing being incorrect. There’s no time when you’re there to learn. I feel that this not only applies to learning another language, but to all aspects of life.”

Joseph found that her trip was definitely a highlight of her summer.

“I met so many wonderful people that I feel like are my best friends and I will keep in touch with,” Joseph said. “I’m a lot more aware of the environment around me, and Costa Rica has shown me a different way to live that I hope to pass on to other people here in America. It was the best highlight of my summer.”

Many CHS students were fortunate enough to travel, explore and learn this summer, and hopefully they will be able to take that summer of new experience sand apply it to what they learn and do here at CHS.

“Being there has changed me. It’s amazing to feel that in touch with nature, and to be that way for a whole two weeks was exhilarating,” McAfee said. “We lost track of the days and the time and were just so involved in the research and being in such a beautiful place. I’ll never forget it.”

Published:

5/30
2010

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“Letters to Juliet” review

By Meredith McMahon

The recipe for a good chick flick (not great, mind you) is simple and finite– a well known actress, an attractive Australian actor and perhaps Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” to top the whole thing off with whipped cream. The whipped cream is a little unnecessary, but overall “Letters to Juliet” is a sweet, relaxing chick flick.
Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried) is a “Fact Checker” for The New Yorker magazine and longs to be a writer. She lives in New York City with her overexcited Italian fiancé and they decide to take a pre-honeymoon to Venice, Italy. In Venice the fiancé mainly stays out of the picture while Sophie ventures out to find a wall of letters written by women about their relationships with men that are ‘to Juliet’ from the play “Romeo and Juliet”. Four women answer these letters and they call themselves ‘Juliet’s secretaries’. Sophie is soon part of the crew of these women. When she finds a letter from 50 years ago, she decides to answer it. The woman she writes to (Vanessa Redgrave) had left an Italian man, Lorenzo Bartollini, whom she had fallen in love with during a summer when she was 15. She decides to return to Italy to find the love of her life 50 years later, accompanied by her not so eager grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan). Lo and behold, Charlie and Sophie don’t exactly hit it off in the beginning, but soon they fall in love themselves in a pretty predictable fashion. A few twists and turns later, they end up together and live happily ever after.
So perhaps it’s predictable, and there are far too many scenes about finding the ‘true’ Lorenzo Bartollini (although the first few were funny). However, between scenes of breathtaking Italian scenery and Amanda Seyfried’s long blonde hair this was definitely a chick flick worth seeing—for people into seeing chick flicks. For those who are not, however, then they may find that the middle is somewhat lagging and predictable, and that some of the scenes are a little too mawkish. I would like to direct them towards ‘Iron Man 2’ or ‘Robin Hood’ instead of beating up on a not dazzling but comforting movie.
The love story itself is the best part. The very developed characters of Sophie and Charlie reach a level of romantic chemistry appropriate for a chick flick, and the Italian countryside was delightful to behold (along with Amanda Seyfried’s flaxen hair). It was a relaxing 105 minutes and although Lorenzo and Vanessa Redgrave do not have the romantic spark and quickness that Sophie and Charlie do, it provides for somewhat of a loose plot. The part that made this movie special was that it dove into a hate relationship that at some fragile point turned into love. This fragile point was well executed by director Gary Winick and provided the film a smooth finish of fated love (as explored in both Romeo and Juliet and Letters to Juliet) and Italian country sides to top the entire cake off with icing. A ‘dolce’ film to say in the least!

Published:

5/4
2010

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PowerSchool: an asset or addiction?

By Meredith McMahon

I have found, like many CHS students, that I have an addiction– and a rather serious one at that. I cannot say it is one that is so often addressed like drug abuse or alcohol. No, it is an addicting, painful and pleasuring experience that is reserved for the most grade obsessed students at our high school.
The internet phenomenon/addiction is called Powerschool.
I do admit. Especially after a large test I can check my grades every day, even several times a day seeking the reassurance of knowing my grade. Powerschool has found its niche in CHS for the past eight years as a way of easy access to grades for students, parents, and teachers.
“We needed a student information system and we decided it was time to look for one that had more options to it,” Assistant principal Marcy Pieper said. “Powerschool worked with the Mac (computers) seamlessly. There were committees and lots of talk about which to go to, and along came Powerschool. Along with Powerschool came a parent portal. Teachers could go in look at grades and it was working really well.”
When Powerschool made its debut at CHS, there were quirks.
“We found that at the very beginning parents were on constantly and emailing teachers on updating grades,” Pieper said. “There was that fear that once we opened it up to students and parents the focus wouldn’t be so much on learning but on grades and becoming obsessive about it. . . It’s a lot calmer now than it was when it first opened up.”
Checking grades too often is little much because Powerschool policy says that teacher only have to update grades every two weeks, however for some, checking grades is more like a routine.
“[I check Powerschool] every other day,” freshman Rachel Han said.
Other students, like freshman Jack Klamer, checks his grades “every fortnight”. Senior Hannah Klein didn’t start checking Powerschool until much later on.
“I didn’t really start looking at Powerschool until the beginning of my senior year, and maybe a little my junior year,” Klein said. “I think it helped me stay on top of my grades and know which classes I could relax a little bit in (we all need those classes) and which ones I had to start working harder in.”
According to English teacher Jennifer Sellenriek, some high schoolers often obsess about grades more than anything else.
“To a certain extent, I think high schoolers (and their parents and teachers) often fall into the trap of focusing on grades more than learning. And the quick access to Powerschool and the limits of the program, exasperate that reality.”
Senior Danny Steinberg agreed with Sellenriek.
“I think that the easy access does lead to more people being more concerned about what their grades on various assignments are rather than whether or not they have mastered the material,” Steinberg said.
According to Pieper, Powerschool hasn’t led to grade obsession but is merely an outlet for kids to know their grades.
“Our kids aren’t relaxed about grades,” Pieper said. “We live in a school that’s driven by academics while every other school I’ve been to has been driven by other things. Kids have been worried about grades since I’ve been here, which has been 15 years. Even before Powerschool kids were wanting to know about their grade, ‘can I get more points on this’ and all other things.”
Some students are more focused on grades rather than the information that they learned.
“The grade goes to what college you want to go to,” freshman Mitchell Lazerus said.
Jack Klamer, freshman, also added that the system is built “to get the grade, but you get the information when you get the grade.”
Sellenriek agreed with Lazerus.
“I work with a lot of students who really want to learn, who are curious readers and who want to become better writers, regardless of their grades,” Sellenriek said. “On the other hand, there is a lot of focus on grades. A lot of this focus over grades is about college admittance, so it’s not so much about Powerschool as the obsession over Powerschool is a result.”
Steinberg believes that Powerschool definitely puts more pressure on him.
“It [Powerschool] puts more pressure on me than there otherwise would be for two reasons,” Steinberg said. “One is that I can see my grades at will and so I want to work on them more and the other is that my parents can see them, and when teachers don’t enter every thing right away the grades may be very inaccurate.”
Other students find this easy access helpful.
“I really like the quick access,” Klein said. “I think at Clayton grades usually accurately reflect how well a student learns the material, so if Powerschool helps me stay on top of my grades, which it does, it is incentive for me to learn the material.”
Sellenriek comments on how Powerschool itself does not show as much as a student needs to know, and needs some tweaks.
“Feedback is an essential tool to learning,” Sellenriek said. “Students need to know what they are doing well and what they have failed to master so that they know what to practice, what to study, and what to seek clarification on. A grade on Powerschool does not necessarily give a student that information . . .A grade means very little in isolation.”
Pieper attributes the Powerschool “hobby” to how academically strung CHS is.
“What I like about our kids is that the grades are there to get them where they want to be, to get them into the schools they need to get into,” Pieper said. “What sets Clayton apart from other schools is that the kids here really love to learn. You know, they may not admit that to their friends. When you walk into the Commons or the library you always see a group of kids eating breakfast with a group of people, working on things. I’ve seen kids after ball games working on homework. That’s just the way it is here, it’s an academic school.”
Most other schools also have “parent portals” to see their child’s grades as well.
“It’s better just to know that it’s there and you can check it when you need to, but to go on every day and check your grades is a little much,” Pieper said.
Grading practices in general are ever to be perfected.
“I’ve been teacher for a long time now, and I’m always reconsidering my grading practices. It’s not that easy,” Sellenriek said. “If a student’s effort is evident in the quality of an assignment, then the grade represent that too. But, that’s not always the case,” said Sellenriek. “A student might work very hard on an assignment but not have mastered the skills required. That’s a difficult situation for student and the teacher. I think in an ideal situation, grades would only be rewarded at then end of a marking period. Students would have the time and space to explore and make mistakes and show their mastery of course objectives over time.”
Steinberg agrees that some teachers may find it helpful to reconsider different grading techniques.
“Not being assessed until the end of the grading period should be an option that teachers could use or could bring up to their students as a possibility,” Steinberg said. “It would be especially helpful in English and History classes where there is more room for growth and the classroom dynamic plays a bigger part in the material. that way students would feel freer to contribute without worrying about repercussions grade-wise.”
Powerschool has a lot of things to offer, undoubtedly. Grades do matter– yes, colleges will still look at your GPA. But the question is, how well does Powerschool– and grades in general– reflect your understanding of the concepts? CHS students must be prepared to keep in mind that what they learn counts just as highly as their grades to achieve a true academic excellence. If students wish to understand and enjoy courses in college and be able to function outside of CHS in general, we should be placing our emphasis (and time) on learning, not grade grubbing.
So for those of you out there with this plague called “Powerschool Addiction” you have been warned– be sure you check whether you actually showed that you learned the concepts first before arguing with your teacher for just those extra two points.

Published:

3/26
2010

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Richard Millett gets into NHSHO

By Meredith McMahon

Who knew a talented violist was in our midst named Richard Millett?
Millett was one of 17 violists who were selected after auditioning for National High School Honors Orchestra and he placed sixth chair. NHSHO was held in Santa Clara, California, this year and entailed playing high level music with very advanced players.
This year the orchestra played Mahler’s “First Symphony” (sometimes called “The Titan”) under the direction of Raymond Harvey.
“My personal favorite movement was the final movement, “Stürmisch bewegt – Energisch” (meaning “Stormily agitated – Energetic”),” said Millett. “As the title would suggest, it’s very turbulent and energetic, making it fun to play (though it was easily the hardest movement of the symphony to play).”
Millett was one of nine Missouri students who attended—eight of whom were from the St. Louis area. Millett decided to audition after CHS orchestra teacher Julie Hoffman told him about the orchestra and found he had previously played the required solo piece for the audition.
Millett also attended Missouri All-State Orchestra this year and found small but significant differences between the orchestras.
“Musically, All-State and NHSHO are actually not all that disparate,” Millett said. “Both had a lot of talented players this year and successfully performed very high-level music. NHSHO was still the better orchestra though, probably just by virtue of drawing from a much larger pool of musicians. We spent significantly less time at NHSHO dealing with basic issues like intonation than at All-State and a lot more time on little musical nuances.”
Not only musically was All-state different than NHSHO, but also experience and schedule wise. He found that rehearsals were longer and more frequent at NHSHO and found the group of musicians who attended was more diverse.
“Certain regions do tend to be more represented than others – Missouri, New Jersey, and California come to mind as having a lot of people that went – but you still get the chance to meet a more diverse group of people than at all-state,” Millett said.
Overall they were both fun but different orchestras.
“Basically, you get less free time,” Millett said, “but the whole experience feels a bit more polished.”
Although Millett doesn’t think the experience changed his perspective on music radically, he feels like it was a good reminder to what he previously had been taught.
“One of the main lessons I re-learned from NHSHO was that a good musician has to try and make even the most repetitive or seemingly dull sections of the music interesting,” Millett said. “It’s not enough just to play the notes on the page.”
Millett encourages others to try out as well.
“I would definitely encourage people who enjoy playing music to try out,” Millett said. “It’s a lot of fun if you are friends with other people who are trying out, since you get to spend a week with those people. The orchestra is also extremely high quality and consists of lots of interesting people.”
Millett thought that getting behind a week in school was a drawback and the fact that the school doesn’t pay nearly as much as it does for all state, but overall the experience was worth it. Millett certainly has plenty to be proud of for his achievement.
“Still, it was a great experience and if someone’s both a good musician and a diligent student, they should definitely send in an audition tape.”

Published:

1/27
2010

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Sparknotes misguides students, ignites debate

By Meredith McMahon

SparkNotes: a brilliant invention saving time and trouble or a slippery slope to bad grades and essentially, missing out on the actual reading of the literature we are supposed to read in English class?
SparkNotes is a website that is similar to “Cliffnotes” in that it gives a synopsis of more popular books used in English classes and even sometimes has different sections , such as “No Fear Shakespeare.” The idea of SparkNotes being an online version of literary study guides was born in 1999 by founders Chris and his Harvard College roommate Eli due to the large number of college and high school students on their original website, The Spark, founded in 1998.

Sonja Petermann

Sonja Petermann

Freshman Deb Steinberg thinks that SparkNotes is a dangerous, yet sometimes helpful tool.
“I disagree with teachers when they say SparkNotes is bad,” Steinberg said. “It is a great tool but it can be used badly, however it’s still useful. Any good thing can be used in a bad way.”
Despite Steinberg’s disagreement with teacher’s disapproval of SparkNotes, often teachers are do not fully classify this site as being outright bad.
“I am not against the use of summaries to help a person recall what he or she has read,” English teacher John Ryan said. “I am against them as a substitute for reading.”
The basic reason why SparkNotes has so many teachers’ general disapproval is because of its factual structure.
“SparkNotes’ design implies that the only reason a person reads is for “just the facts”: who the characters are, what they do, what happens to them,” Ryan said. “This basic information might help a student beat a “Did-you-read-it” quiz, but it does not begin to broach other issues of reading: predicting, interacting, interpreting, relating, discovering a sub-text, to say nothing of appreciating style, historical context, moral (or immoral) behavior, and other higher-order concerns.”
Students such as senior Andrea Goldstein, an AP Literature student, agree that reading the book is much more fulfilling.
“I don’t think that using Sparknotes is cheating, but I do believe that reading books is much more fulfilling than reading a summary of them on SparkNotes,” Goldstein said.
The lack of the deeper issues of reading makes those who use SparkNotes instead of actually reading the material have a much lower understanding of the material, which not only becomes apparent on tests but also apparent to their understanding of how to read English literature.
“I think part of the problem with the SparkNotes issue is that in almost every other discipline, reading is a means of gathering information or instruction in the service of some other task (directions for a word problem in math; an explanation of mitosis in a biology textbook),” Ryan said. “This fact may condition students to view reading as having just a single purpose—at least academic reading, that is.”
Although SparkNotes does dive into the zone of analyzing sometimes, this analyzing proves to be misguiding.
“I mistrust their analyses,” Ryan said. “They are either shallow or obvious—or worse, inaccurate. Who writes them? Are they trained in the way teachers at CHS are, most of whom have Masters Degrees?”
Steinberg thought it was a question of availability.
“I use it [SparkNotes] to clarify my questions about the text I have to read,” Steinberg said. “If teachers won’t always be there to answer my questions, SparkNotes helps to further my learning.”
Goldstein thinks that older students rely more on SparkNotes.
“I think older students do rely on it more, especially seniors,” Goldstein said. “This is the time of year when everyone starts to feel the effects of senioritis, so I guess instead of taking the time to read the books some are assigned, they refer to SparkNotes.”
Overall, Ryan believes SparkNotes has its limitations as to how closely they relate to the book.
“In English, students may read for information or instruction, but they also must become accustomed to reading books as sources of value in their own right,” Ryan said. “This is difficult to accept, much less master, when we live in age of immediate utility.”

Published:

10/16
2009

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Score is 0-0 at JV soccer team against Affton

By Meredith McMahon

It’s a windy, gray day at Gay Field, but the team spirit is vivid on the field as the Clayton team huddles up and shouts “Go hounds ” before running onto the field.

Despite the vivacity of the Clayton team, the Affton and Clayton teams tied 0-0 Oct. 6.

The game started with a pass back by the Clayton team. Clayton took the ball up the field onto the side with Afton’s goal. Freshman Sebastian Juhl made the first two corner kicks of the game, which both were misses.

The ball mainly stayed on Affton’s defensive side for the first half, although there were two attempts on Clayton’s goal. The goalie, Jonathon Matheny, saved the ball at 9 minutes into play and at 17 minutes into play. During the entire first half nobody scored, although the ball was kicked out of bounds a lot.

Freshman Mitchell Lazerus, midfielder, believed the Affton team was beatable.

“I think we need to work on our aim and aggressiveness. Although they weren’t a bad team, we should’ve beat them,” Lazerus said.

During the second half of the game Clayton’s offense was boosted by the addition of Juhl on the offensive line. During the second half, Juhl was on the left side of the goal and crossed to the middle, and another player passed it back when he tapped it into the goal. However this goal was not legitimate because it was off-sides.

Overall Clayton dominated the game, despite the tied score.

“I think that it was an overall pretty good game,” Lazerus said. “We’ve seen better days, but I think overall this season has been really awesome all around.”

Published:

9/24
2009

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A new season brings new beginnings for show choir

By Meredith McMahon

Upon walking through the halls of CHS early in the morning before school, you may catch some sounds of Duke Ellington, Van Morrison and other popular singers spilling out of the music wing, and perhaps catch a glimpse of students dancing and singing. What could have possibly dragged these exhausted teenage souls out of bed? The obvious answer is the famed CHS show choir.

Students audition for the CHS show choir with director Alice Fasman. (by Caroline Stamp)

Students audition for the CHS show choir with director Alice Fasman. (by Caroline Stamp)

Show choir is a fun alternative for students who take performance classes such as orchestra, band and choir to perform outside of school. Auditions were at the beginning of school, when students would come to learn pieces that they would rehearse with the group on the second week.

Students learned a dance routine while the dance choreographers Ian Miller, Ruthie Polinsky and Erica Hill observed.

Although more competitive for the girls,  “[The new group] has a very strong male section” director of choral music at CHS Alice Fasman said.

Although competitive, sometimes it’s just the blend of your voice.

“Blend is an important part of the audition,” Fasman said. “A person with a beautiful voice that doesn’t blend is at a disadvantage.”

Previous members also had to re-audition this year and said that the process is select.

“Getting into show choir is pretty enigmatic, and is never a constant” junior Ian Miller said.  “The group has always been pretty select, and it really varies based on the circumstances of the year.”

The circumstances of this year have certainly changed. Show choir had to completely fill up the alto section of the choir again after three seniors graduated. Not only that, more people auditioning and more openings make this year different from previous ones.

Last year there were only 12 students in show choir, and this year it has made the leap to 20.

“The great thing about the show choir this year is that there are so many people! It has such a great sound,” junior Sarah McAfee said.

Show choir not only is an extracurricular activity but also takes place in the Clayton community. It performs at graduation, the Arts Fair, Senior Swing, the elementary school tour and more.

Show choir also has three concerts with the regular choir in November, March and May. Listeners and members enjoy the pop, show and jazz genres of music.

“I really like the types of songs show and swing choirs get to sing,” McAfee said. “It’s nice to experience more jazzy, stylized songs, and dancing along with that type of music is great.”

Past repertoire includes “It Don’t Mean a Thing (if it Ain’t Got That Swing)” by Duke Ellington, as well as “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison and “Mama Who Born Me?” from Spring Awakening.

Incoming students have big shoes to fill after last year’s graduating class.

“The show choir last year had three voices for each part; soprano, alto, tenor and bass,” McAfee said. “ The three seniors who graduated were all altos, so the group was really unbalanced. It was also sad to say goodbye to Rebeccah, Leigh, and Susie.”

Not only was it hard saying goodbye to past members, but looking into the future it will be especially hard saying good bye to the current junior class.

“Junior class will be hard to replace for years,” Fasman said.  “ [It is] particularly strong, oh my gosh. . . We’ll be in mourning when that class leaves in years to come.”

However, it is important to look at the present right now and see the potential this year’s group holds.

“This year’s group is already extremely determined and energetic, so we will definitely accomplish a lot,” Miller said. “I really wish to break out of the mold that show choir has fallen into, and really get creative with how we perform. I am very excited to see what this new group can achieve.”

Published:

9/13
2009

Posted In:

A&E

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‘Julie and Julia’ satisfies cravings

By Meredith McMahon

Don’t forget your dinner before you come to the succulent, French food- filled film, “Julie & Julia”! Between scenes of delicious, buttery fish and dark chocolate cake is a story of two women– Julia Child, the famed chef who introduced French cooking to America in the 1960’s and Julie Powell, a woman living in the 2000’s in a mediocre apartment in New York city with a stressful secretarial job.

At first the two women seem completely unconnected. Although the viewer gets to know both women very well, they never meet. However, they do share similar stories– they both want to find something that brings excitement to their lives. Both women turn to food, finding unplanned fame as they follow their passions. Julie is a follower of Julia Child and decides to create a blog about her personal challenge– to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.

The highlight of the movie is Meryl Streep’s performance as Julia Child. Not only does she look the part, but her onscreen presence is bewitching.

Meryl Streep as Julia Child (Sony Pictures)

Meryl Streep as Julia Child (Sony Pictures)

The film drags when Julie is moaning about her poor life—the repetition of heart breaking cooking disasters and depressing job scenes gives a “whiny child” aspect to an actress who clearly does not deserve that title. However, that was the personality of the character she was playing, so she should not be criticized for playing it well. In fact, the serious side of Amy Adams was impressive, particularly after starring in less serious movies, like “Enchanted”.

The bittersweet end was the best part of the movie– my first reaction was surprise, but it changed to understanding (especially since it’s a true story). This movie can inspire a love, or at least interest, in good food in anyone, and therefore is a movie well worth seeing!