#ThisWeekAtNCS | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

northcountryschool · 4 years

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March 27, 2020

Photo: The view from Balanced Rocks. Credit: Exec. Director Todd Ormiston.

As the first week of our online classes comes to a close, we would like to thank our community members for their patience as we work through this learning process together. While we have transformed our normal ways of teaching and learning, the education of the whole child remains at the core of all we do. Over the next few days, we will be soliciting feedback from parents about the current format of the online classes as we seek to improve the system that is currently in place. Spring is such an incredible time at North Country School, from hands-on learning outdoors in warmer weather to maple sugaring to lambing season, and we deeply miss having the whole community together to enjoy it.

In addition to the weekly blog, we are excited to launch a new "Connecting with Our Community" learning and activity series next week, which we hope will help keep us all connected at this difficult time. (See the footer below for more info.)

For over 80 years, our students have been challenged and inspired by the rawness of the mountains that surround us. Living in this environment gives children a deeper understanding of the rigorous beauty of nature and the delicate balances and life cycles that define life on our planet. Immersion in nature can have a healing quality, and so, we hope that you and your family are able to spend a little time outdoors while at home together.

Slowly but surely, the last vestiges of snow will begin to melt in the Adirondacks, the trees will begin to bloom, and soon, wild shades of green will enliven the mountains. We hope that the promise of spring will inspire and reassure our community of our collective resilience. We will all get through this together.

As we are learning in our own lives, the distance created by being separated from a community can feel isolating. Know that we are here to support you and your children through these challenging times. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions, suggestions, or concerns.

Note: Our campus is temporarily closed to all students, with the exception of the 21 international students who remained here during spring break, rather than returning to their home countries during the early stages of the outbreak. These students, houseparents, and faculty are staying on campus and enjoying outdoor adventures in the contiguous wilderness during this time. They have been and will continue to practice social distancing, as well as CDC approved safety and prevention protocols.

OUR COMMITMENT TO CHILDREN

Top: Garden Manager Tess holds seedlings. Middle 1: Head of Kitchen Paulette Peduzzi prepares food. Middle 2: Local sweet potatoes for dinner. Middle 3: Jenny works from campus. Bottom: Nurse Jess Jeffery and her son, Wyatt.

Life at North Country School looks different than it did earlier in the year, but our commitment to caring for our students and one another has not changed. Each day the adults on campus work to ensure that our community and the children that live here are cared for, happy, and healthy. Garden Manager Tess has been busy in the greenhouses starting seeds and tending to the plants that will nourish us through the rest of the year, both in the dining rooms and in the Teaching and Learning Kitchen for our Edible Schoolyard program. Head of Kitchen Paulette, along with other members of the kitchen staff, moved to campus earlier in the month to ensure that everyone on-campus will have access to delicious food full of healthy, wholesome ingredients.

While Paulette and Tess have been busy working in the kitchen and gardens, students and houseparents have been caring for our residential spaces, ensuring that those houses continue to truly feel like homes and provide a place to relax, work, and play. Our campus is also home to our two wonderful nurses, Jess and Shannon, as well as their families, and we are grateful for the thoughtful and compassionate care they provide to our students and faculty each and every day.

CREATIVITY AND CONNECTION

Top: Caroline reads to her English class. Middle 1: Melissa’s “first day of school” sweater. Middle 2: Larry teaches Earth science. Middle 3: Sierra teaches photography. Bottom: Edible Schoolyard teacher Elie makes a pizza for a “What’s Cooking on Campus?” lesson to send to families.

NCS has always been a school committed to dynamic, place-based, and hands-on learning. For our dedicated faculty, the move to online teaching demanded creativity and flexibility, but those core values remain the same. Teachers have been hard at work tackling that challenge, making sure to support one another and share resources in the process.

This week, English teacher Caroline read aloud to her 4th- and 5th-graders from The Ugly One, by Leanne Statland Ellis, while 8th-grade English teacher Melissa donned her trademark “first day of school” sweater before holding the first online class with her students. Earth science teacher Larry ran his class on erosion forces using a projector to view the group and engage in discussion. Sierra talked her photography class through their first lesson, helping them brainstorm ideas for individual creativity and thoughtful collaboration. As part of our efforts to engage with the greater community, and to reach families that are together in their own homes, Edible Schoolyard instructor Elie baked up some tortillas and a pizza to prepare for his first weekly “What’s Cooking on Campus?” lesson. Each Wednesday on our Facebook page, Elie will be posting recipes and cooking tips as resources for those cooking at home. “What’s Cooking on Campus?” is part of our new Connecting with Our Community series. Find more information on that series at the bottom of this post.

A PLACE TO PLAY

Top: Sweety makes a snowball. Middle 1: Playing sit down ball in the snow. Middle 2: Jessica ice fishing. Middle 3: Playing badminton in the WallyPAC. Bottom: Dean of Students Bryan Johansmeyer and his family build a snowman.

Access to the outdoors, exercise, and play have always been core values in the North Country School community, and their importance has never been more clear than during these challenging times. Our adults and students are still spending much of their time outside, and the fresh snow this week created the perfect playground for snowball fights, snowman building, and games of an NCS favorite pastime, sit down ball. Other groups took walks down to the lake for some afternoon out-times of ice fishing under bright blue skies, and when the temperatures dipped back toward freezing, groups took advantage of the spacious Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center (WallyPAC), setting up a badminton court that has been a favorite after-dinner activity this week.

NCS AT HOME

Top: Faculty child Ella attends a Zoom class from her on-campus home. Middle 1: Eighth graders attend a synchronous class online. Middle 2: Sixth grader Brian attends English class from home. Bottom: Sixth grader Samantha makes homemade ravioli from home.

Homes look different across our community, but those living both on and off campus have found ways to engage with one another even when they can’t meet face to face. Whether on the North Country School campus in Lake Placid, like 8th-grade faculty child Ella, or spread all around the world like much of our student body, those in the extended community have found creative ways of connecting to their teachers and classmates, often by sending updates of their time spent at home. This week we received pictures of 6th-grader Brian attending a synchronous English class with his teacher, Jack, from the comfort of his Connecticut home’s living room. Day student and 6th-grader Samantha sent photos of her family preparing homemade ravioli and baking tiramisu cake using recipes and skills she’s learned in her years of Edible Schoolyard class at NCS.

SIGNS OF SPRING

Top: A tree frog on campus. Middle 1: Fred helps collect maple sap. Middle 2: Spinach growing in the greenhouse. Bottom: Moss peeking through the snow on campus.

While our day-to-day lives may have changed significantly in the recent weeks, we on the North Country School campus have greatly appreciated that the changing of the seasons has continued moving forward like clockwork. All around us, the snow is melting and new green shoots are pushing out of the ground. The maple sap is flowing in our sugarbush, and we have already boiled that sap down into many gallons of sweet maple syrup for use in our dining rooms throughout the upcoming year. Our greenhouses are filled with tiny seedlings and young plants stretching toward the sun, and we are already harvesting some of our first greens of the season. Soon our sheep will begin their lambing season down at the barn, and the once tiny baby chicks have started looking like adult chickens. In this challenging time, observing these beautiful and normal moments, and seeing reminders of the resilience of the natural world, have been both a comfort and source of optimism to us here at NCS.

We hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy, and that your communities are caring for and supporting one another. We will continue to update you about our community from our mountain campus throughout this time, and encourage you all to reach back out to us as well.

CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY:

Mondays: Check our Facebook page every Monday for a video from our School Counselor, Lauren, on tips for getting through this challenging time.

Wednesdays: What’s Cooking at NCS and Camp Treetops? Our Edible Schoolyard instructor, Elie Rabinowitz, along with other community members, will provide simple recipes and cooking resources you can use to cook delicious meals at home with your families. Check it out on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Fridays: Check our Facebook page every Friday for a video featuring a Japanese mini-lesson by teacher Meredith Hanson.

Saturdays: The NCS Saturday Night Activity- Teacher Larry Robjent will be hosting a fun activity similar to the Saturday night activities usually held on campus each weekend with students. Participate live from home with your own families! Check it out on Facebook.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website: www.northcountryschool.org

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northcountryschool · 5 years

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November 15, 2019

This week we saw our first big snowfall of the year at North Country School, with nearly a foot of fresh powder blanketing our trails and fields. Students got in on the snow-fun by building snow people of all shapes and sizes, engaging in snowball battles, and sledding down our campus sledding hill. With the snow came the first truly cold temperatures of the season, providing us with the opportunity to have conversations about how to stay safe and warm in our rugged mountain climate throughout the winter season. As we leave autumn behind we look forward to the many fun-filled days of skiing, sledding, winter hiking, ice climbing, and ice skating to come.

ACADEMICS

Last week’s town meeting, run by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee (DEI), focused on recognizing the many different food traditions and eating practices represented within our community. Each table of students and teachers was given conversation starters about how we eat and what we eat, both within our individual family-units and in our different home countries. The group then shared their thoughts on sticky notes placed on plate posters that will be displayed in the Main Building hallway.

This past week our 7th grade class celebrated the completion of their first poetry anthology with a cafe-style poetry reading. Each student contributed poems to the bound anthology over the course of the fall term, and the group joined together in our “Community Lounge Cafe” to read their work aloud and celebrate one another’s unique voice. A copy of the bound anthology will be kept in the library to make the collection of original writing available to the larger community.

In Selden’s 7th grade history class, students are learning about New World exploration life on ships. In order to gain a better understanding of sustenance in those harsh sea-faring conditions, the group sampled hardtack (very hard, simple biscuits made from water, flour, and salt) alongside apple cider (which stood in for grog made from rum and water). Hardtack and grog were important staples of life on ships for more than 500 years, as they were unlikely to spoil or become contaminated despite a lack of refrigeration.

ARTS

At North Country School, our youngest students rotate through different arts electives throughout the year, allowing them to sample the creative avenues available to them as they continue their academic journeys. This term a group of students including Wyatt, Piers, and Samantha have been down in the fiber arts studio working on their weaving skills. The class has been learning how to make colorful belts and pillow covers on the looms, and their finished projects will be displayed around the Main Building during our upcoming Family Weekend celebrations.

Our older students are able to select their own arts electives each term from a varied list of options. Students Darren and Ella have been working down in our darkroom to develop final versions of their prints, while students in the woodshop have been putting the finishing touches on their own designs. Daven made headway on his wooden cart, while Koga spent some time sanding the edges of his original bench seat made from campus-cut pine.

OUTDOORS

This past weekend our 9th grade class was given the opportunity to learn first aid and CPR lifesaving skills from North Country School nurse and trained first aid/CPR teacher Jess Jeffery. The group of students, which included Julia, Emily, Bladen, Sally, Evan, Silvia, David, Rebecca, and Sam, spent the morning learning and practicing the many aspects of basic lifesaving including administering CPR to medical manikins. At the end of the training each student in the group was issued a first aid and CPR certification through the American Red Cross.

On Saturday our students ventured off campus in groups to explore our surrounding region. One group, which included students Alejandro, Duke, Isabella, Paula, and Frank, ventured out in search of waterfalls. The group crossed bridges, found the season’s first giant icicles, and admired several impressive waterfalls throughout the day including towering Beaver Meadows Falls. Meanwhile, the “Adirondack Sampler” group took a more literary tour of our surrounding Adirondack Park. The group first visited two libraries, obtaining library cards and checking out books, before hitting the Wilmington Thrift Store to see what treasures they could find with only one dollar each. They ended their day at the Adirondack Carousel in nearby Saranac Lake, which features whimsical seats representing animals native to the Adirondack area including snowshoe hares, river otters, red squirrels, bald eagles, and black bears.

The first big snowfall of the year arrived this week, covering our campus in nearly a foot of fresh, fluffy snow perfect for sledding and cross-country skiing. Students hiked out to our campus sledding hill behind Mountain House for a fun (and cold) out-time, taking runs down the hill on their own and in pairs. Student Alejandro brought a snurfer (the predecessor of the snowboard) out with him, strapping on a helmet for his own runs down the hill.

FARM AND GARDEN

The low temperatures and heavy snowfall this week may mean the end of our fall riding season, but this past week students were able to steal a little more horse-time before the inches accumulated, taking a picturesque ride through our garden pasture. The arrival of winter also marked the final produce harvest of the season for our farmers. Garden Manager Tess and Farm Intern Nick spent some time in the greenhouse cutting the season’s last lettuce that was served to the community as part of our dining room salad bar.

As part of our special Wednesday evening homenight schedule, each week a different residential house rotates through the responsibility of completing afternoon barn chores. This past week the students and adults in Algonquin House headed over to our barn through the snowy garden pasture to care for our animals before cooking up their own homenight meal. Waters were refilled, grain troughs were topped off, hay bales were tossed into animal stalls and brought out in the pasture, and horses were groomed as students including Steven, Rebecca, Sally, Tristan, and Edie made sure that our barnyard creatures were safe, warm, and well fed for the evening.

Note: Next week’s This Week at NCS update will be posted on Monday, November 25th in order to include our annual Family Weekend and Thanksgiving celebrations.

For more information about the #This Week At NCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website: www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 5 years

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May 10, 2019

Warm weather ushered in a bounty of new green growth on our farm, as well as the opportunity to get back out on our lake after a long winter season. With the ice on Round Lake fully melted and the water temperature rising, students took the canoes out of storage and got in some springtime paddling. Seedlings are growing fast over in the greenhouse, and students continued to help seed and transplant flower and vegetable plant starts, while down in the barn our horses are groomed and ready for a season of trail rides, riding lessons, and drill team performances.

ACADEMICS

This week our 9th grade class took a field trip to nearby Saranac Lake to visit to the Trudeau Institute and the Saranac Laboratory Museum. There they met biomedical researchers, learned about the Adirondack region’s rich history in regard to tuberculosis research, and were able to view laboratory spaces where the researchers continue to study diseases today.

In Gavi’s 5th grade math class students are working on conversions as part of their fractions and decimals unit. Students including Samantha and Sweety measured various spots around the Main Building in inches and then converted those measurements into centimeters, feet, meters, and kilometers.

Meanwhile, Kayla’s 7th grade math class has been designing blueprints of their dream homes using their knowledge of polygons, angle relationships, proportions, and area. The group will use their calculations to create posters that will be displayed in the Main Building.

ARTS

As the spring production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It draws nearer, students are getting into character and being fitted for their final costumes. The cast assembled in full costume this past week for the photos that will be used to create the production’s promotional posters, posing in the mossy campus woods that mimic the forest setting of many of the play’s scenes.

Students are getting their hands dirty in the ceramics studio this week in both Noni and Sam’s arts classes. While 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students practice their clay coil work, our 7th and 8th graders are learning to hand-build human busts and to throw cups and bowls on the wheel. The dried out projects first go into the kiln to get bisque fired, after which they will be covered in liquid glazes and fired once more, creating a colorful, glossy, and durable finished project

OUTDOORS

This past Saturday our students enjoyed lakes and ponds both on and off campus, as well as hiked around the Adirondack High Peaks.

Teachers Sam and Elie brought a group of students to nearby Copperas Pond, where the group spent some time fishing in the cool, misty weather. Since North Country School (along with Camp Treetops) is the lean-to adopter for the Copperas Pond lean-to, the group also went through a caretaker checklist that includes removing trash from in and around the lean-to, writing a new welcome greeting in the lean-to logbook, and sweeping the lean-to floor.

While Kayla and Gavi’s weekend trip hiked the long trail up Haystack and McKenzie mountains through muddy trail conditions, Sierra and Kelt’s group, including students Sophie, Tyler G., and Wendy, enjoyed the many outdoor activities available to them on and around the NCS campus. The group hiked along the nearby Jackrabbit Trail, played games in the campus woods, and paddled around Round Lake, enjoying the views of Balanced Rocks and Pitchoff Ridge visible from our lakefront.

FARM AND GARDEN

This past weekend we held the annual NCS grooming contest, during which students compete for prizes in the areas of horse grooming and tack cleaning. Students have been working in pairs on grooming their horses for the past several weeks as our herd sheds their thick winter coats. The contest culminated this past Saturday as guest judge and NCS alumna Jean Hoins rated the students’ work. The contest winners will receive extra trail riding lessons, riding ring lessons, or a visit to a local ice cream shop.

While our horses and tack were readied for the spring riding season, students helped prepare our campus for another of NCS’s annual traditions: Pancake Breakfast. During this event, which will take place this coming Saturday, the NCS community will welcome visitors from the greater region to our campus for a hearty meal of pancakes and local sausage, along with tours of various campus spaces including the barn and the outdoor climbing wall. The event also includes a student-run plant sale, and this week our 7th graders, including Steven and Alex, helped transplant the vegetable and flower seedlings that will be sold at that sale.

Check back next week to see what we’re up to on our mountain campus.

For more information about the #This Week At NCS blog, contact Becca Miller: [email protected]

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website: www.northcountryschool.org

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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The #ThisWeekAtNCS Blog has moved!

All new posts for the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog can be found on our new website.

Check it out here!

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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November 6, 2020

Photo: Matt helps move firewood.

At North Country School, we believe that valuing what we have is rooted, in part, in understanding where things come from and the work involved in their production. Playing an active role in providing for our community—whether it be by carrying buckets of maple sap, harvesting vegetables from our fields, cleaning and dyeing wool sheared from our sheep, moving and stacking firewood, or collecting food scraps for composting—gives our students a deeper understanding about conservation and use, as well as how we define waste. This first-hand knowledge also allows us to engage our students in ongoing conversations about our impact on the environment around us, so that when we pour maple syrup on our pancakes, scrape leftovers into the dining room compost bin, or turn up the heat that warms our houses throughout the winter, we do so thoughtfully, consciously, and with appreciation.

To get on our NCS mailing list, email [email protected].

ACADEMICS

Top: Melissa greets everyone at the poetry cafe. Middle 1: Colton and Alejandro listen to poetry. Middle 2: Tyler recites her poem. Middle 3: Grace and Isha read poetry. Bottom: 8th-grade poetry anthology.

Our 8th-grade English students have spent much of the fall term studying poetry, and this week the class celebrated the culmination of this unit with the printing of their annual 8th-grade poetry anthology and a live poetry reading. Their teacher, Melissa, hosted the poetry cafe—which took place in our dining room in order to prioritize social distancing and air filtration—and began by congratulating the student-poets on their work both writing pieces and designing their anthology book. Students spent some time reading through one another’s work while sipping tea and sampling fresh-baked cookies and muffins, before each poet read their work aloud to their peers. We were excited to see the class supporting one another as they shared their personal work, and were proud that nearly every member of the class opted to read several of their poems aloud.

Top: Dave helps Langlang program her robot. Middle 1: Robot parts. Middle 2: Brian fixes his robot. Bottom: 7th-grade robot battle.

This fall term our 7th-graders have had a great time learning about building and programming robots in our STEM robotics elective class under the guidance of their teacher, Dave. Using the Lego Mindstorms EV3 system, the class has been studying core logic and reasoning skills within robotics engineering, and using that knowledge to construct and program robots. Each robot is designed to work through several different challenges, the first of which is battling their classmate’s robot by pushing it out of a wrestling ring while keeping their own robot inside of it. The final challenge of the term will be programming their robots to complete a variety of place-based, North Country School tasks, such as herding sheep into their pen, harvesting vegetables from the garden, climbing to the top of the crag, kicking a soccer ball into a goal, or unloading the honeywagon compost pile at the barn.

ARTS

Top: Katie helps Matt weave. Middle 1: Anika’s finished bag. Middle 2: Sophie’s finished bag. Bottom: Wyatt’s string art.

This week our 5th- and 6th-grade art class has been finishing up their large weaving projects by tying off yarn ends and attaching woven straps to bags. Some of the students, including Anika, Sophie, and Matt showed off their final colorful projects, which incorporate yarn from our sheep, while others began new projects, including needle felting using unspun farm wool and sewing decorative string art onto boards.

Top: Nate builds a stop-motion figure. Middle 1: Nate’s stop-motion figures. Middle 2: Nate’s unfinished stop-motion figure. Middle 3: Larry, Ella, and Bing look at their fly crane design. Middle 4: Fly crane design. Bottom: Teagan welds.

In filmmaking class, Nate has been working on his short stop-motion film by finishing up his clay characters. One complete, Nate will take hundreds of still images of his characters, making small changes between each image, and edit those images together to show motion. He will then edit those images together into a short film about friendship and adventure.

Many of our art classes use resources from our campus, whether it be in the form of wood cut from our forests used for woodshop projects, wool from our sheep knitted into hats and woven into belts, or in reclaimed building materials being turned into large-scale art installations. In Community Projects class, students recently finished up their wood projects—the academic Adirondack chairs being used in our outdoor classroom spaces—and have started working on projects using reclaimed scrap metal. This week, Teagan used her new welding skills to begin building a rack that will store materials for future art projects, while Bing and Ella began working with their teacher, Larry, on the design and construction of a “fly crane.” This crane, built from a mix of reclaimed metal materials and new steel, will be used to lift and move performers around the stage during future theater productions.

OUTDOORS

Top: Monty and Matt on the Cascade Mountain summit. Middle 1: Ani on the Cascade summit. Middle 2: Biking on campus trails. Middle 3: Jess gives Olivia her CPR/First-Aid certificate. Bottom: Jess gives Landon his CPR/First-Aid certificate.

This past weekend saw bluebird skies and fresh snow dusting our surrounding mountainscape, and groups took advantage of the beautiful weather during Saturday and Sunday outdoor trips. On Saturday, students hiked right from campus to the top of nearby Cascade Mountain, a 4,098-foot peak that's one of the 46 mountains over 4,000 feet in the Adirondack Park. Icy conditions at the summit gave students their first opportunity of the season to hike wearing microspikes—metal spikes that strap onto the bottom of hiking boots, allowing for better traction. The group reached the open top with time to relax and enjoy the spectacular view. On Sunday students spent some time exploring our campus, with one group of students taking advantage of our skatepark and another riding their bikes around the campus trail system.

This past week we celebrated the students in our Outdoor Leadership Program as they completed their hands-on CPR and First-Aid training and took their written tests. Each student in the class finished the training successfully, and was awarded a certificate in these crucial skills from the American Red Cross.

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Elie runs a wood stacking out-time. Middle1: Adyan tosses a log onto the pile. Middle 2: Brynn moves logs. Middle 3: Matt, Landon, and Adyan help load wood into a truck. Bottom: Wood stacked in the shed.

North Country School is not only a farm that grows vegetables and raises animals, it is also a Certified American Tree Farm System. This means we manage our forest using a plan designed by a forester, using methods that prioritize the health of the land. Part of managing our forests involves strategically and sustainably removing trees from our maple sugarbush when and where it is appropriate. The lengths of wood cut from those trees are then used in our woodshop for students’ projects, to fire the sap evaporator during maple sugaring season, and to heat our buildings during the cold months of the year.

This week our students helped us in our efforts to provide firewood for campus by spending out-time up at the woodshed. Students helped load up the truck with wood, and then walked down the path toward the Hill House boiler room to unload the wood needed to heat our residential spaces (having plenty of fun while tossing logs onto the pile). By helping with the big task of keeping our houses warm throughout the winter, our students are able to have a better understanding of what it takes to offset our energy needs, and why we try to conserve energy use whenever and wherever we can.

Check back next week to see what we’re up to on our mountain campus.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website:

www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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October 30, 2020

Photo: Wyatt, Duncan, River, and Will in their cereal and milk group costumes.

Halloween is a much-loved and highly-anticipated event at North Country School—one that takes a great deal of planning and the work of many hands. Like so many NCS events and traditions, our Halloween celebration looked a bit different this year, but still brought with it plenty of fun and excitement. After weeks spent working on scary decorations, designing socially-distant candy dispensers, putting together homemade costumes, and creating a COVID-friendly haunted house, our students were able to enjoy the fruits of their labor in an evening filled with seasonal celebration. We were, as always, thrilled to see our community adapt to new circumstances and creatively take on challenges, while never losing the collaborative spirit or playful silliness that makes North Country School so special.

To get on our NCS mailing list, email [email protected].

ACADEMICS

Top: Bryan teaches about lacrosse. Middle 1: 4th-graders learn about lacrosse. Middle 2: Alea helps build a longhouse. Bottom: 4th-grade builds a longhouse.

Our 4th-grade social studies class has spent the past several weeks exploring the history and culture of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois), who are the Indigenous people of the Adirondacks. During this unit, students have focused on the development of the Haudenosaunee civilization, which celebrates connection to and preservation of the natural world, as well as learning about the mythology, village life, family structure, and rituals embedded in the Haudenosaunee culture.

Last week, the class was excited to welcome two sets of visitors. Karonhianonha and Maie, cultural educators from the Native North American Traveling College, joined in via Zoom and taught the class some of the traditional song and dance rituals still practiced by members of the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne. The class was also visited in person by Dean of Students Bryan Johansmeyer and his son Sam, who showed a video on the origins of lacrosse within the Haudenosaunee. The students headed outside to learn some lacrosse skills for themselves. The class has also continued working on their hands-on project of constructing a Haudenasaunee longhouse using materials from around campus.

Top: Larry explains the carbon cycle. Middle 1: 8th grade plays a game of carbon cycle playground ball. Middle 2: Zachary represents the atmosphere in the carbon cycle. Middle 3: Steven presents his cell diagram. Middle 4: Steven’s wallpaper art cell diagram. Bottom: Completing a cell lab in costume.

In Earth science class, students are beginning a unit examining the effects of carbon on climate change. This Halloween week, our costumed 8th-graders learned about the carbon cycle, playing a game to demonstrate how carbon moves around the Earth through fossil fuels, plants, and animals. Using a playground ball to represent carbon, each student selected a different part of the carbon cycle and sent the ball through different carbon cycle scenarios. The class observed that by changing the amount of plants in the world, carbon can either become sequestered in a safe way or increased to dangerous levels in the atmosphere.

To kick off their unit on cells, our 9th-grade biology students were tasked with making a creative and accurate representation of either a plant or animal cell. The goal of the cell project is to familiarize students with the organelles found in the cells of eukaryotes, or organisms with complex cells containing organelles and a membrane-bound nucleus. Once they completed their projects, each student presented their creation and what they’d learned to their peers. Some students chose to construct their cells from fired clay, wallpaper, or thread, while one student presented their cell information in musical form. The class (fully decked out in their Halloween costumes) then looked at magnified plant and animal cells through a microscope, drawing what they observed.

ARTS

Top: Clark House poses for a Halloween photo. Middle 1: Halloween murals in the dining room. Middle 2: Arden as Katniss Everdeen and Melissa as Rey Skywalker. Middle 3: Algonquin House as Despicable Me characters. Middle 4: Langlang gets candy from a tube dispenser. Middle 5: Decorated lights in the Dining Room. Middle 6: Ella, Grace, and Teagan as the Powerpuff Girls. Bottom: Haunted house woods scene.

At North Country School, we celebrate Halloween as a community on the Wednesday homenight of Halloween week. It is one of our most anticipated days of the year, with many beloved traditions including a costume parade, a scary themed dinner, games and contests, a dance, and a haunted house.

As with so many events and traditions this year, this week’s Halloween festivities were celebrated in smaller groups and relocated to different areas of campus, but none of the scary fun was lost. Our annual costume parade moved outdoors to Bramwell Run, where everyone marveled at all of the creative homemade costumes including Katniss Everdeen (complete with homemade wings), characters from Despicable Me, and a breakfast complete with cereal, milk, a spoon, and a bowl. In lieu of our usual indoor carnival, this year students went trick-or-treating with their advisory groups, visiting different on-campus stations to collect candy from socially-distant candy stations designed by our 8th-graders. After eating a gory (and delicious) dinner of worms, green slime, and mummies in our festive dining room, small groups visited a scary haunted house in the woods conceived and acted out by the 9th-grade class. Though it may have looked a bit different than past events, this year’s NCS Halloween proved once again that by being flexible, thinking creatively, and working together, our spirit of collaboration and community will continue to shine through.

OUTDOORS

Top: Jess teaches Inyene CPR. Middle 1: Olivia performs CPR. Middle 2: Jess teaches the Outdoor Leadership class CPR. Bottom: Olivia and Grace D. act out an emergency first aid scenario.

Over the course of the past week, students in our Outdoor Leadership Program have been working toward their certification in First-Aid and CPR. During their weekly class, each student practiced their CPR skills and watched videos showing them how to approach emergency situations safely. On Saturday, they were able to practice responding to emergency situations, with the help of other students playing the role of victims. The students in the class applied their emergency First-Aid knowledge to each while their peers (wearing gory makeup for extra authenticity) acted out the parts of patients needing different types of medical care. Once the students successfully complete their training, they will receive a certification in First-Aid and CPR for adults, infants, and children through the American Red Cross.

Top: Adyan and his swing. Middle 1: Homemade swings in the woods. Middle 2: Raia celebrates the first snowfall. Bottom: First snowball of the season.

This past Saturday saw a group of our younger students finishing up their homemade swings in the woodshop, before installing their completed projects on our campus trails. The five swings, made from pine cut from our forest, were hung from trees near Hubbard Lean-to, and will surely be enjoyed on weekend camping trips and during out-times for years to come.

This week, in addition to celebrating our Halloween festivities, we also celebrated the first real snowfall of the year. Everyone rushed outside to play in the fresh dusting of fluffy powder, creating snow angels and making the first snowballs of the season. The first snowfall means that our mountain winter is truly on the horizon, and we are all excited to begin a fun season of skiing, snowboarding, and ice skating in the upcoming months.

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Tess explains garlic planting. Middle1: 7th-graders separate garlic cloves. Middle 2: Garlic cloves ready for planting. Middle 3: Langlang plants garlic. Middle 4: Planting rows of garlic. Middle 5: Brian spreads straw on garlic beds. Bottom: Ani finishes covering garlic beds in straw.

This past week our 7th- and 8th-grade Edible Schoolyard (ESY) classes planted this season’s garlic crop. Garlic, like many bulbs, must go in the ground in the fall, and then spends the darkest, coldest months of winter buried under the soil. At North Country School we save some of our own garlic harvest each year for planting, and this week our students, alongside Garden Manager Tess, Farm Intern Hania, and ESY teacher Elie, met in our gardens to go through the planting process together.

Heads of garlic were first broken into cloves, and then those cloves were spaced apart and planted in the freshly turned soil. The beds were then covered in straw that will insulate the crop as it overwinters, before appearing as one of the first vibrant green shoots in the spring—an early harbinger of the harvest bounty to come in the warmer months. Each garlic clove will grow into its own plant, sending up grassy leaves and an edible flowerstalk (or scape) in early summer, and will be ready to harvest as a garlic head in late summer. The garlic grown on our campus will be stored in our root cellar and cooked into delicious meals by our kitchen staff throughout the school and camp season.

Check back next week to see what we’re up to on our mountain campus.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website:

www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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October 16, 2020

Photo: Bryan helps Ella carry a turkey.

At North Country School, the concepts of community and sustainability are woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. We honor these values in many ways, but they are particularly evident during our community farm harvests. This week our campus community took part in several different autumn harvest events, including the picking and storing of our annual carrot crop, as well as the harvest of the turkeys and chickens that will provide us with meat for the upcoming year.

Vegetable harvest days are fun and joyful community events where we can enjoy the fruits of our hard work and patience, while the days we harvest our farm animals are filled with reverence, reflection, and respect. During our bird harvests, we recognize and appreciate the turkeys and chickens that our community has raised from chicks and cared for during daily barn chores. Bird harvests are “challenge by choice” opportunities, which allow students to be involved to whatever extent they feel able as they learn the steps that bring humanely-raised meat to our plates. They are powerful days for everyone, where students and teachers work together as we are reminded of the many hands it takes to support a community, the ever-changing cycles of farm life, and our own connection to the animals that help sustain us.

To learn more about this year’s harvests, see this week’s Farm and Garden section at the bottom of this post.

To get on our NCS mailing list, email [email protected].

ACADEMICS

Top: Grace and Steven in Global Issues class. Middle 1: Nate in Global Issues class. Middle 2: Azalech and Teagan in Global Issues class. Bottom: Ella and Bing in Global Issues class.

In 9th-grade Global Issues class, students have been learning about the United Nations (UN) and that international organization’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are seventeen interconnected goals that the UN has determined would serve as a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.” This week, students met in Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center (WallyPAC) with their teacher, Isaac, to practice their active communication, listening, and presentation skills during a “Face-Off” exercise. Students spoke with their partners about which SDGs they believed to be the most pressing in today’s world, offering their reasoning behind this belief. Some of the timely SDGs students chose to discuss with their peers included climate action, ending poverty, ending hunger, establishing strong national and global institutions, and ending corruption and establishing just political systems.

Top: Teagan watches a presentation in English class. Middle 1: Cocona presents her fallacy project from China. Middle 2: Landon watches a fallacy presentation. Bottom: Julia and Raia with their Title Trekker bookmarks.

This fall, as travel restrictions have limited the ability to host some of our international students with us on campus, we have had to adapt certain academic and arts courses to accommodate dual-format education. One such class that engages students both in-person and remotely is 9th-grade English, where NCS students in China join in each day via Zoom to collaborate and interact with their on-campus peers.

This past Friday, our 9th-grade English students—including those international students attending remotely—shared what they have learned about cognitive biases and fallacies in presentations given over Zoom to students in the NCS 4th-7th grade cohort. The younger cohort was able to watch presentations and ask questions of their older peers from their own on-campus classrooms, which allowed our students to connect and collaborate while maintaining the space necessary to prioritize health and safety. Using slides, comic strips, scripted conversations, and short original videos, the 9th graders presented their selected cognitive biases, which are thinking errors that are often subconscious, and fallacies, which are logical errors that destabilize an argument. The student-presenters also fielded questions about how those errors can lead to mistakes in reasoning.

ARTS

Top: Larry talks to students in Design and Build class. Middle 1: Intern Marcos helps Zachary with treehouse construction. Middle 2: Isha and Alejandro work on the treehouse. Middle 3: Colton and Koga cut tree branches by the treehouse. Middle 4: Design and Build students stand on their in-progress treehouse structure. Middle 5: Courtney talks to her Impact theater class. Bottom: Impact students work on choreography for their original play.

For the past several years, one of the dynamic art electives offered to our older students has been Design and Build class, where students are able to work together to create and construct new additions to the NCS campus. Past Design and Build projects have included the Community Lounge climbing space, the Glass House playground and low ropes course, and the bridge over the stream in Dexter Pasture. This year’s Design and Build students have been hard at work alongside teacher Larry to take down and rebuild the campus treehouse—a longtime favorite play-space for NCS students and Camp Treetops campers that was beginning to show its age. The group has been using entirely reclaimed materials to rebuild the treehouse, starting from the ground up as they work on their new structure. This week we saw quick progress being made on what will surely be a beloved addition to our campus woods.

One of the many performing arts electives offered at North Country School is Impact class—a social-justice focused course where students work together to write an original play on subjects they feel passionately about. This week our Impact students, along with theater teacher Courtney, began to choreograph a scene for this year’s play where they will be using Janelle Monáe’s song “Turntables” to address the Black Lives Matter protests and racial justice issues taking place in the United States today.

OUTDOORS

Top: Hiking the Mount Van Hoevenberg trails. Middle 1: Students on the Mount Van Hoevenberg summit. Middle 2: Langlang draws on the Mount Van Hoevenberg summit. Middle 3: Dance club meets outside. Bottom: JT bikes during out-time.

This past weekend saw a group of students hiking to nearby Mount Van Hoevenberg, a beautiful Adirondack summit located across the road from the North Country School campus and surrounded by miles of wooded trails. The group explored the autumn woods around the summit before spending time at the mountain's rocky landing, relaxing in the sunshine, enjoying the views, and doing some drawing. Students also enjoyed the sunny outdoors during out-times this week, with one group congregating on the outdoor stage for the first meeting of a dance club, and another group skateboarding and biking by the tennis court’s new skate park.

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Tess explains Carrot Harvest. Middle1: James and Lucy harvest carrots. Middle 2: Harvesting in the carrot field. Middle 3: Monty picks a carrot. Bottom: A bin of harvested carrots.

Fall at North Country School brings with it the need to harvest many of the vegetables grown on our farm. Over the past few weeks our students have helped harvest and store onions, herbs, potatoes, and sunchokes, and this week our younger cohort of students worked alongside Garden Manager Tess to pick and store the remainder of our farm carrots. Planted from seed in July, the carrots were weeded and cared for throughout the summer by the faculty and staff living on campus, and this past week our students spent a beautiful fall afternoon picking the remainder of the crop. The 800 pounds picked this week were added to the carrots picked last week by a smaller out-time group, bringing the total harvest weight to over 1,000 pounds. The bounty of carrots harvested will be stored in our campus root cellar and used by our kitchen staff to cook up nutritious meals throughout the year.

Top: Erica explains Turkey Harvest to the 9th-grade class. Middle 1: Wyatt carries a rooster. Middle 2: Katie helps Raia pluck a bird. Middle 3: Anatomy labels for the 9th-grade biology lab. Middle 4: Ani and Mia clean a bird. Middle 5: Elyssa helps Leo with a final bird cleaning. Bottom: Azalech weighs a cleaned and bagged turkey.

The days when we harvest our farm chickens and turkeys are filled with mixed emotions for every member of our community. They are days when we come together with kindness, caring, and patience as we process the many birds that will help feed us throughout the coming year. Though traditionally our bird harvests have been all-school events, this year we restructured our harvests into smaller group sessions in order to prioritize the health and safety of our community.

Each harvest began with barn manager Erica gathering the students and teachers, grouped together by cohort, to discuss how the morning would look. She outlined what everyone could expect to see and experience in the hours ahead, and made sure that students knew that they would be able to choose their level of involvement. Erica explained the various stations, which include plucking, cleaning, bagging, and weighing birds, and reminded students that each station would have several adults there to support and work alongside them. For our 9th graders, the harvest also included a turkey anatomy lesson led by their biology teacher, Colin, who previewed what they would be seeing when they examined each bird.

Many students chose to take birds through every step of the harvest process, while others spent the morning at the stations where they felt most comfortable. Students who decided to opt out of the bird harvest also spent the morning working for the community, moving and stacking the firewood that will be used to heat our buildings throughout the winter.

For many North Country School students and teachers, this was their first time at an animal harvest, and the day brought with it many thoughts and feelings that were shared in conversations that followed. For others, the event has been a part of their lives for many years. For all members of our community, these harvest days are powerful reminders about how we can come together and support one another, and about the importance of taking the time to appreciate the many animals that help sustain us.

Check back next week to see what we’re up to on our mountain campus.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website:

www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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October 9, 2020

Photo: 5th- and 6th-graders participate in WARP with English teacher, Isaac.

At North Country School, we believe that nurturing a child’s curiosity and wonder is a crucial part of the educational experience. When we were founded over eighty years ago, Walter and Leonora Clark knew that these aspects of learning and growing didn’t just occur in the academic classroom, but when children were given the space and the time to use their imaginations and to play. Today, North Country School continues to be that place to play, where students can be silly, can imagine new worlds, and can be creative together. This aspect of our philosophy is never more evident than during our annual WARP, or Wilderness Active Role Play, event.

Each year, WARP invites our entire school community to embark on fantastical quests, battle monsters in the name of good, and solve riddles together using shared knowledge. Though we have had to restructure WARP this year in order to keep our community healthy and safe—instead of one big, community-wide event it's now spread over 10 sessions with smaller groups—it is clear that none of the magic has been lost. Over the past few weeks we have loved watching our students adventuring through our campus woods, donning homemade costumes as they embarked on magical quests. We are grateful for the opportunity to preserve this part of childhood for the students in our care, and will continue to adapt to the new challenges that come our way, making sure to take that necessary time to simply play.

ACADEMICS

Top: Rob shows 4th grade how to make rope. Middle 1: Tiago makes rope. Middle 2: Melissa teaches English in the butterfly house. Middle 3: Grace writes poetry on the Mountain Bench. Bottom:Tyler writes poetry in a crabapple tree.

This week our students spent time in our outdoor classroom spaces learning new skills as well as delving deeper into their existing interests. As part of their unit learning about Indigenous groups in the Adirondack region, our 4th-grade social studies students began constructing a model of a Haudenosaunee longhouse. 7th-grade teacher Rob visited the class to talk about how early civilizations used natural materials to make cordage, and led the group in a cordage-making activity. Some of the cordage made will be incorporated into the larger structure as the class gets further into the longhouse construction process.

Melissa’s 8th-grade English students enjoyed the views from the Butterfly House this week for their Reading in the Zone: Finding "Just Right" Books conversation, where they discussed the value of reading books about a variety of subjects and with varying levels of difficulty. They also spent time working on their original poetry by the crabapple trees and on the Mountain Bench, which was built by graduating 9th graders several years ago and depicts a 360-view of the mountains surrounding the NCS campus.

Top: Garth’s geometry class has fun with their math activity. Middle: Eden corrects a geometry problem. Bottom: Correcting a geometry problem.

Garth’s 9th-grade geometry class had a great time with math this week as they reviewed what they’ve been learning in their constructions unit. By using a compass and straightedge to work through problems, the students acted as the teachers, grading a fake test with incorrect answers. After finding the errors present in each answer, the group shared their conclusions with their peers.

ARTS

Top: River and his coaster. Middle: Duncan sands his coaster. Bottom: Elie shows his students how to sand in the outdoor woodshop.

Over in the woodshop, our 5th- and 6th-graders continued to work on their coaster projects at our outdoor workshop stations. The projects, inspired by the Offerman Woodshop and woodworker Krys Shelley, allows students to practice some of their foundational woodworking skills including designing, measuring, hand-cutting, hand-sanding, and gluing. Many of our students plan to give the coasters–which are made from campus maple—as gifts to their friends and family members for the holiday season.

Top: Noni winds up campus yarn. Middle 1: Grace needle felts a Coraline doll. Middle 2: Needle felting a face. Middle 3: Josie needle felts a cat. Bottom: Colorful campus wool.

Arts students at North Country School are able to use the wool sheared from our sheep for many different types of fiber projects. Some of our wool is spun into yarn that is used for knitting projects and is woven into pillows and blankets on our looms, while some is kept unspun and used for needle felting. This week our 8th-grade artists began their creative needle-felting projects, and we were excited to see the vibrant wool take form as Josie’s cat, Maple, as Tyler’s sunset landscape, and as Grace’s recreation of the Coraline doll from the stop-motion film, Coraline.

OUTDOORS

Top: 5th- and 6th-graders participate in WARP. Middle 1: Sophie “Lord of the Rebels” in her WARP costume. Middle 2: Looking for WARP clues. Middle 3: 9th graders Ella and Teagan as magical characters in WARP. Bottom: A fork in the road.

At North Country School, our annual WARP, or Wilderness Active Role Play, event is a highly anticipated day of the year. In the past, WARP has taken place as an all-day, all-school event where students and teachers dress in homemade costumes, wield foam swords, and battle monsters throughout our campus woods. As with many things this year, we have had to change parts of WARP in order to keep our community safe and healthy, but we haven’t lost any of the spirit behind this fun event. 9th-grader Ella took on the restructuring of WARP as an independent study project, and has created different WARP out-times for each grade level that incorporate academic content into their different challenges. In order to succeed in their quests, students must use what they have learned in their classes, finding clues, and deciphering riddles alongside their in-character teachers. Though this year’s WARP may look a bit different, our students have still been having a blast working together while exploring campus, just as they always have during this whimsical and immersive event.

Top: A walk in the autumn woods. Middle 1: Rock climbing at the Climbing Crag. Middle 2: Building the campus treehouse. Middle 3: Trail work on the Skihill. Bottom: Steven in a leaf pile.

Our campus was the perfect autumnal playground this week, and students took full advantage of the beautiful weather while exploring the trails during out-times and on weekend trips. One group of students got in some quality time rock climbing at the Crag, while another spent the afternoon working on the campus treehouse, which is being rebuilt from the ground up as part of this fall’s Design and Build arts class. On Saturday, a group of our older students worked hard for the community while doing some trail maintenance on our Skihill, getting the terrain in top shape for what we hope will be a winter season full of skiing and snowboarding. Meanwhile, all across campus, we watched as our entire student body had a ball while participating in that timeless autumn activity–jumping in leaf piles.

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Grace L. on a horse. Middle: Saturday trail ride. Bottom: Grace D. with the sheep.

The beautiful autumn backdrop also provided our students the perfect opportunity to spend time on horseback. This past week saw students riding horses during Wednesday homenight—an afternoon and evening set aside for students to spend time with their housemates and houseparents—as well as on weekend trips and during out-times. One Saturday trip took a trail ride around Dexter Pasture, before heading down to the barn to say hello to our flock of sheep and our goats, Dumbo and Bambi.

Top: Tess shows Zachary the seeder. Middle 1: Koga uses the seeder to plant spinach. Middle 2: Landon shells dried beans. Bottom: Dry beans waiting to be shelled.

In our 8th-grade Edible Schoolyard class, students have been learning about seeds, seed saving, and seed sovereignty—the right of growers to save and replant non-GMO seeds. This week students spent time in the greenhouses, working with Garden Manager Tess to sort through the Vermont cranberry beans they’d harvested the week before. After a lesson on winter greenhouse growing, each student took a turn seeding spinach using the Earthway seeder. The spinach planted will grow slowly in our unheated greenhouse throughout the cold winter months, and be ready to harvest as our first greens in the early spring. The colorful dried beans will be stored and used throughout the year in our campus dining room.

Check back next week to see what we’re up to on our mountain campus.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website:

www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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September 25, 2020

Photo: Morning frost on campus.

This week marked the first full week of classes in our fall term, as well as the first weekend filled with outdoor adventures and fun activities. Our students and teachers made good use of a variety of different outdoor campus spaces for their lessons, with classes taking place high atop viewpoints, around our woods and trails, and in our garden and farm spaces. Though we are not straying far from campus for outdoor trips this fall, there were no shortage of exciting options for our students to participate in this past weekend. Saturday saw groups of students paddling around Round Lake, learning tricks in our newly constructed skatepark, and hiking to nearby Balanced Rocks—a longtime favorite of North Country School students and Camp Treetops campers. Fall colors are nearing their spectacular peak in our surrounding Adirondack Park, and each day we make sure to take some time to pause and simply appreciate the view.

Note: This week we returned to our standard #ThisWeekAtNCS format of highlighting each of our four signature program areas—place-based academics, the visual and performing arts, our outdoor program, and our farm and garden—in these campus updates. Check in each week to see how our students are learning, growing, and exploring in all of these areas of the North Country School program.

ACADEMICS

Top: Max teaches science class on the Trouble lookout. Middle 1: Anika does science work on Trouble. Middle 2: 5th- and 6th-grade science class on Trouble. Bottom: River, Matt, and Ani write their scientific observations.

This week provided the perfect autumn backdrop for outdoor classes, with our youngest students taking full advantage of our mountain campus to practice their skills of scientific observation and identification. In Max’s 5th- and 6th-grade science class, students took a hike up to Trouble—a sprawling view of the North Country School campus and High Peak mountains—for a lesson on sensory observation. Students in the class took notes on the many sights around them, from large to small, before sharing some of their observations with their classmates. The group also discussed how our brains store information, constantly sorting through and weeding out data in order to shape our perceptions of the world around us.

Top: Julia and her leaves for science class. Middle: Alea selects leaves. Bottom: A leaf rubbing.

While their older peers made scientific observations from the top of Trouble, our 4th-grade scientists began studying the forest around the Upper Field for their unit on tree identification. Each student in Elie’s science class selected five unique leaves from the trees around them. They then made leaf rubbings in their science journals using crayon and colored pencil, before examining and writing about the different leaf shapes, margins, and venation (veining patterns) they observed in their leaf samples.

ARTS

Top: Courtney’s class plays an improv game. Middle: Abigail creates a weaving pattern. Bottom: The colorful weaving supply shelf.

At North Country School, our core value of “art everyday” can take many forms, and this week our students explored their creative voices and vision through a wide array of mediums. In Courtney’s improv class, students played a mix of improv games that will help them hone their skills of reacting quickly and working together as a group. Down in the fiber arts studio, students began designing original patterns that they will follow as they weave colorful tapestries and belts.

Top: Sierra teaches a photo class outside. Middle: Grace learns about her film camera. Bottom: Colton takes digital landscape photos.

Students interested in photography at North Country School have the opportunity to experiment with both digital and film cameras, and to edit their projects both in our digital photo lab and in our darkroom. This week, photography teacher Sierra worked with our 8th- and 9th-grade photography students, explaining the mechanics of their different cameras and guiding them on photo walks around campus. Students including Grace and Colton were able to explore and capture beautiful images of the garden, Round Lake, and our surrounding mountainscape as summer turns to fall all around us.

OUTDOORS

Top: A Saturday trip to Balanced Rocks. Middle 1: Eliza jumps between the rocks at Balanced Rocks. Middle 2: Azalech rides a horse. Middle 3: Canoeing on Round Lake. Bottom: Alejandro skateboards at the skatepark.

This past weekend marked the first official weekend trips of the year, and though we are not straying too far from the North Country School campus this fall, there are no shortage of spectacular sights and fun adventures to be had within our own spot in the Adirondack Park. This Saturday saw one group of students hiking up to nearby Balanced Rocks to take in the sprawling views of campus and the surrounding mountains. The group then followed in the footsteps of so many before them by jumping between the towering “balanced rocks” that give the vista its name. Back on campus, other groups spent time in the riding ring practicing their equestrian skills, paddling around Round Lake in canoes, and heading over to the newly-constructed skatepark to work on their jumps and tricks.

Top: Jess J. teaches Outdoor Leadership class. Middle: Inyene reads a compass. Bottom: JT and Jess J. use compasses to navigate through the Upper Field.

This fall we are excited to be offering a new Outdoor Leadership class to our 8th-grade students, led by one of our nurses and lifelong outdoor adventurer Jess Jeffery. This week Jess, who also has a background as a wilderness caretaker and ski patroller, led the class through some of the foundations of wilderness safety and navigation. The group, which includes students Olivia, Inyene, JT, and Landon, learned the basics of reading a compass and using maps, before creating their own navigation courses through campus. The group then led and instructed some of their peers through the courses they’d created.

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Monty at barn chores. Bottom: Lucy, Julia, Duncan, and Julian give the sheep hay during barn chores.

At North Country School, caring for our barnyard creatures, and understanding how those creatures provide for us in turn, has been an integral part of our value system since we were founded in the 1930s. Each day our students work together to ensure that our farm animals are safe, happy, and healthy. This week our youngest students participated in their first weekly chore rotation down at the barn, working alongside Barn Manager Erica and our farm interns to learn how to collect eggs in the chicken coop, top off water and grain troughs in our sheep and goat barn, put out hay bales on the horse pasture, and muck out animal spaces.

Top: 7th-grade Edible Schoolyard class meets in the Children’s Garden. Middle 1: The farmers talk about our pigs. Middle 2: The pigs in Dexter Pasture. Bottom: Brian in front of the pig enclosure.

When Alice Waters, a founder of the farm-to-classroom movement, created the Edible Schoolyard Project in Berkeley, California, in the 1990s, she selected North Country School and Camp Treetops as one of the six founding members of the organization, calling NCS/CTT “the pioneer of edible education.” Today, just as in our earliest years, we continue to believe in the importance of connecting children to the natural world, to the food systems that provide us with sustenance, and to the life cycles involved in those systems. Our own Edible Schoolyard (ESY) classes, offered weekly to our entire student body, strive to provide our students with the foundational knowledge to make healthy food choices for themselves, their communities, and the environment.

This past week our 7th-grade Edible Schoolyard students met up in the Children’s Garden to share some thoughts on their own food choices and preferences, before heading over to visit and learn about our herd of pigs. ESY teacher Elie, along with Barn Manager Erica and our farm interns, talked about how and why we choose to raise pigs for meat, and about the importance of considering what it means to raise meat animals ethically. The class also discussed the many different factors involved in making personal food choices. Erica and Elie explained how our pigs have been cared for, and how we value and appreciate their role in keeping us fed and healthy. While discussing raising animals for meat can be challenging, these conversations serve important reminders about the many factors involved in getting food to our plates each and every day.

Check back next week to see what we’re up to on our mountain campus.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website:

www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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June 1, 2020

Photo: Crabapple blossoms by the Main Building front entrance.

The end of the academic year on the North Country School campus holds many beloved traditions, both large and small. Some of these traditions require many hours of work on our community’s part, while others arrive suddenly, like gifts. The spring theater production and our graduation ceremony require many hands and a great deal of teamwork, while the new green leaves papering the mountainscape delight us each May as nature brings warm sunny days and erases all signs of the long winter. Each year, as graduation day approaches, we watch the apple and crabapple trees around campus, looking for signs of flower buds, knowing that whatever the weather, those trees nearly always hit full bloom just as our graduating class departs.

This year, as our campus and the larger world around us faced many unforeseen challenges, the resilience of nature has been a constant source of hope and optimism for us here at North Country School. Though the winter has been a long one in many ways, this week the apple blossoms all around campus bursted into bloom like clockwork, providing the perfect backdrop for our end-of-year festivities and graduation ceremony. It is a reminder that, though we will face obstacles and setbacks, there still is and will continue to much beauty to behold all around us.

Join us in celebrating the end of the 2019-2020 academic year, and in honoring our 9th-grade graduating class. We know that our graduates will go on to do great things, and can’t wait to see all they accomplish in their next endeavors.

Note: Our campus has been closed to all students for the spring term, with the exception of the international students who remained here during spring break rather than returning to their home countries during the early stages of the outbreak. These students, along with our houseparents and faculty have been taking appropriate safety and prevention measures.

SPRING MUSIC RECITAL

Top: Spring Recital opening shot of campus. Middle 1: Azalech’s singing performance. Middle 2: Mia’s piano performance. Middle 3: Tsinat’s music production project. Middle 4: Duncan’s drum performance. Bottom: Choir performance.

This year’s Spring Music Recital was an impressive feat, assembled by students, staff, and music teacher Joey Izzo over the course of the spring term and embodying our core value of “art every day.” The final product highlighted both our student body’s incredible musical talent, as well as their dedication to collaboration and hard work. The performances spanned a wide array of musical skills honed throughout their time at NCS, and included a beautiful vocal performance where 8th-grader Azalech harmonized with herself; piano performances from students including Mia, Jack, Tianyu, Kalina, and Koga; music production projects from students Hart and Tsinat; a drum performance from 5th-grader Duncan; and several choral performances featuring Ella, Teagan, Summer, and Tiri, recorded in their separate homes and edited together into moving collaborative compositions.

To view the Spring Musical Recital, CLICK HERE.

APPRECIATION TOWN MEETING

Top: Cascade House girls, including Mountain Cake winner Cocona, attend Town Meeting. Middle 1: Mountain Cake winner video. Middle 2: Mountain Cake winner list. Bottom: The community celebrates the Work Award recipients at Town Meeting.

Each year to celebrate the end of the academic year, our campus community gathers together for a final Town Meeting event to honor members of our student body and express appreciation for one another. Though this year’s event looked a bit different, the spirit of this Town Meeting was stronger than ever. Students and teachers joined remotely from locations around the world to reflect on the past year and to highlight one another’s many accomplishments.

The Town Meeting included our annual Mountain Cake ceremony, which recognizes the students who covered the most ground (and water) while hiking, skiing, and canoeing in our outdoor program this year. 8th-grader Cocona was able to celebrate with her on-campus housemates as she was awarded the honor of “Most Overall Miles,” while the other students honored in the ceremony celebrated from home alongside their families. The Town Meeting also recognized the four students who have most embodied our core value that “many hands make light work,” volunteering their time to help the community throughout this past year. Students Emily, Ella, Sky, and David were awarded this honor, and their names will join past generations of caring and compassionate students on the Jamieson Roseliep Work Award Plaque that hangs on the wall of the Main Building. To end the Town Meeting, everyone was invited to express thanks and appreciation for one another, to remember significant moments from the year, and to begin their summer vacations knowing that we will continue to find creative ways to connect and support one another, regardless of any obstacles that may appear on the horizon.

DEAR LEVEL ONE ME

Top: David’s video. Middle 1: Julia’s video. Middle 2: Jessica’s video. Middle 3: Bladen’s video. Bottom: Sally’s video.

One of North Country School’s long-held traditions is for our graduation class of 9th-graders to send videos to their past selves, imparting the lessons they’ve learned throughout their time at NCS. These “Dear Level One Me” videos are then edited together into a compilation of each student’s takeaways, which range from the comedic to the poignant, and are shown to the community at large during the final week of spring term. This year’s “Dear Level One Me” compilation highlighted the many challenges and successes of our graduating class, and included lessons about the importance of trying new things; encouragements to connect with and learn from those with different backgrounds; advice on how best to dress for hiking in subzero mountain temperatures; and reminders that, though it might be tough to wake up early for barn chores, those hours spent grooming horses, feeding baby chicks, and caring for newborn lambs will be sorely missed when it comes time to depart our campus. In a year when so many in our community left campus sooner than expected, the insightful thoughts and reflections of our 9th-grade graduates feel particularly relevant, and are a reminder for all of us to appreciate what we have each and every day.

To view this year’s “Dear Level One Me” compilation, CLICK HERE.

END OF YEAR PRODUCTION

Top: Ella’s Alice scene filmed in the WallyPAC. Middle 1: Mia and Dominica act together from home. Middle 2: Campus screening of Alice. Middle 3: Jessica and Sally act together in the WallyPAC. Bottom: Jonah films his performance as the Mad Hatter from home.

Our core value of “art everyday” is particularly relevant each spring term at North Country School, as nearly our entire student body puts in long hours participating in our annual spring theater production, whether it be on stage, behind the scenes, or providing musical accompaniment from the rafters. This year’s spring play faced the lofty challenge of adapting to an all-remote structure. Theater teacher Courtney Allen, music teacher Joey Izzo, and the NCS student body met that challenge head-on, collaborating to produce Alice Through the Looking Glass: A Miniseries in Four Parts. The four sections of the miniseries were distributed nightly this past week to the greater community, and brought together scenes filmed on-campus in The Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center (WallyPAC) with scenes and musical accompaniment recorded in students’ homes around the world. The final product was enjoyed by all and proved that sometimes what appears to be a setback might be an opportunity to look at something with new eyes, to think creatively, and to work together to make something interesting, innovative, and surprising.

All four links to NCS’s production of Alice Through the Looking Glass: A Miniseries in Four Parts can be found HERE.

SIGNS OF SPRING

Top: Horses in the Garden Pasture. Middle: Goose family on the lake. Bottom: Sally makes a dandelion crown.

The crabapple and apple blossoms around campus weren’t the only springtime sights on the NCS campus this week. Over in the garden pasture our horse herd snacked on fresh green grass and blooming dandelions against a backdrop of Adirondack mountains, while down at the lake our resident family of Canada geese has been enjoying some sunshine as they explore their home. Students and adults living on campus also enjoyed the beautiful spring weather, canoeing, hiking, and spending time relaxing outside when not participating in the array of end-of-year activities.

Top: Garden Manager Tess with seed potatoes. Middle 1: Kentaro, Koga, and Amon mark the garden bed with planting spots. Middle 2: Jess explains planting to Sam. Bottom: Ella carries a bucket of seed potatoes.

On-campus students and faculty families joined together for the last community farm event of the year this past week, spending some time in the dirt alongside Garden Manager Tess during NCS’s annual Potato Planting. As always, many hands made light work, and after a quick and fun out-time of planting, everyone was able to cool off by taking a dip in Round Lake. The students who helped plant this season’s potato crop joined the years of NCS students before them who have helped tend to our farm and gardens, playing important roles in caring for and feeding our community as they learn about the natural world around them. We look forward to seeing many of their faces back on campus in the fall to participate in the other half of our potato season for our annual community-wide Potato Harvest, and to enjoy the delicious fruits of this meaningful and authentic work.

GRADUATION

Top: Graduation flower arrangement displayed in the WallyPAC. Middle: Hand-woven senior books. Bottom: Emily’s diploma bound in her senior book.

Like so many commencement ceremonies around the world, North Country School’s graduation looked quite a bit different than it has in years past. Though the distances between us are in many ways antithetical to the heart of this powerful event that focuses on community and connection, we were still able to join together to celebrate our talented graduates. In a ceremony filled with optimism and inspiration—attended simultaneously by our greater community and by those on-campus—the fifteen graduating students were recognized and awarded their diplomas, bound in NCS’s traditional handmade senior books. The senior books, this year woven by art teacher Noni Eldridge, contain thoughtfully made pages of thanks and appreciation made by NCS students and teachers. The books have been one-of-a-kind keepsakes for generations of NCS students, and are often brought along to North Country School reunion events. We hope that these beautiful books help our current class of graduates reflect upon and remember their time at NCS.

Top: Teacher Josh Briggeman gives the graduation keynote address. Middle 1: Emily’s graduation “thank you.” Middle 2: Larry Robjent gives his advisee Sky’s graduation speech with help from his family. Bottom: Student Will congratulates the class of 2020 from home.

This year’s graduation ceremony included both live streaming and pre-recorded messages to our graduates from NCS administrators and teachers, and featured a keynote address from history teacher and houseparent Josh Briggeman. Josh—who has been a part of the North Country School family for eight years and has seen many former students go on to great things—acknowledged the challenges of this particular moment in history, and offered his thoughts on how the resourcefulness and resilience learned during their years at NCS will serve our graduates well as they strive to make positive change in the world. We also heard thoughtful reflections from each graduating student and their advisors, and were delighted to see many of the students and their families attending the ceremony live from their own homes, sharing in one another’s joys and successes.

Though spring term and our final celebration week was missing many of the elements so many of us value about the North Country School experience, we have been continuously inspired by the countless ways our extended community has displayed the resourceful and resilient spirit highlighted in our graduation address. The NCS community is made up of creative, caring, and compassionate individuals who understand that we are stronger and better when we work together. Many hands truly do make light work, and though there is much work to be done in the world, we believe that our graduates will go toward their next adventures ready to make positive and impactful change. We wish them all the best, and can’t wait to see all they are capable of.

To watch the NCS Graduation Ceremony, click HERE.

We at North Country School thank you for spending the 2019-20 year with us. We wish you all a safe, happy, and healthy summer, and look forward to returning with updates from our mountain campus in September 2020.

Check out this past week’s final installments of CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY:

Monday: Check our Facebook page for the last video of the year from our School Counselor, Lauren. This past week Lauren shared a technique for dealing with grief and loss.

Tuesday: Creature Query- In this past week's Creature Query, Barn Manager Erica explained how chickens benefit from taking a dust bath. Check it out on our Facebook page.

Wednesday: What’s Cooking at NCS and Camp Treetops?- This past week Edible Schoolyard instructor Elie Rabinowitz provided us with two simple dessert recipes: Rhubarb Fool and Wildflower Honey Cookies. These delightfully delicious desserts are made with seasonal ingredients, including dandelion petals and rhubarb from our garden. Check out all of the recipes on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Thursday: Birding with Jack- This past week 6th grade English teacher Jack Kiernan taught us about red-eyed vireos. Check it out on our Facebook page.

Friday: Check our Facebook page for a final Japanese mini-lesson by teacher Meredith Hanson. This past week Meredith gave a surprising lesson on the Japanese words many of us already know. You'll be surprised by how many there are!

For more information about the #This Week At NCS blog, contact Becca Miller: [email protected]

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website: www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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May 15, 2020

Photo: Inspiration bulletin board in the NCS Main Building.

The students and campers who attend North Country School and Camp Treetops often stay connected to our institution throughout their lives, coming back to visit for Friends’ Weekend and bringing their own loved ones along to experience our mountain campus for themselves. While there are many attributes that we believe make our space special—the surrounding Adirondack wilderness, our farm and gardens, the Ski Hill, Round Lake—we believe the relationships formed here have the greatest impact on our students and alumni.

That culture of community is woven throughout the NCS and CTT experience. Our teachers, counselors, students, and campers form life-long relationships that focus on support, encouragement, care, and inspiring one another to develop our strengths. Throughout this time apart we have been particularly grateful for you—our extended tight-knit community. Your words of encouragement, photos, and engagement in our remote programming have been consistent reminders of why we so greatly value being a part of this place. We look forward to continuing to see your updates from home, and know that, despite the distances between us, we are and always will be part of the same rugged, resourceful, and resilient North Country School and Camp Treetops family.

Please keep sending us your photos, and we will add them to our NCS at Home: Spring 2020 photo library. Email photos to Becca Miller at [email protected].

Note: Our campus is closed to all students for the remainder of the school year, with the exception of the international students who remained here during spring break, rather than returning to their home countries during the early stages of the outbreak. These students, along with our houseparents and faculty, are staying on campus and enjoying outdoor adventures in the contiguous wilderness during this time. They have been and will continue to take appropriate safety and prevention measures.

CREATIVITY AND CONNECTION

Top: Teacher Katie paints a Spanish Mother’s Day card. Middle: Katie’s Spanish card. Bottom: 9th-grader Emily’s Spanish card.

This past week our on- and off-campus community members celebrated Mother’s Day in creative ways that extended into our academic classrooms. Teacher Katie’s Spanish class wrote Spanish-language cards for the mother-figures in their lives, showing their love and appreciation while practicing their vocabulary. Katie wrote and painted a card that she will mail to her host mother from her college study abroad program in Chile, while 9th-grader Emily was able to give her card to her mother in person.

Top: 7th-grader Josie gives a science presentation. Bottom: 7th-grader Fred’s science presentation slide.

Rob’s 7th grade science class finished their electricity research projects this week, and completed their energy unit by giving presentations to their peers. The lessons focused on comparing the pros and cons involved in different clean-energy production methods. Josie ended her presentation on wind energy by fielding questions from her audience, and Fred’s slides used charts to illustrate facts about nuclear power’s role in the global energy supply.

ART AND ADAPTATION

Top: Courtney leads a play rehearsal. Middle: Alice in Wonderland cast rehearses together. Bottom: Giant hand prop for Alice in Wonderland.

Though our spring performance of Alice in Wonderland won’t be put on before a live audience, theater teacher Courtney will be compiling student performances into an edited version of the show for the greater NCS community. The cast has been working hard on their lines, and continued rehearsing together remotely this week. Though the show won’t look like past North Country School productions, Courtney and the cast and crew have been thinking creatively about how to incorporate elements like costumes and set into the final production.

Top: 9th-grader Sally practices her graduation piano piece. Middle: Music teacher Joey runs Sally’s music lesson. Bottom: Teacher Melissa paints Senior Pages.

As we near the final weeks of our academic year we have started to prepare for our remote graduation ceremony. Much like the spring production, this ceremony will bring in many elements of a traditional North Country School graduation, while adapting to this unique moment in time. Each year one or two students are chosen to perform musical pieces during the graduation ceremony, and this week 9th-grader Sally worked with music teacher Joey on her piano piece that will be a part of our celebrations that day. Another long held NCS end-of-year tradition involves giving graduating 9th-graders Senior Books—hand-bound books that contain appreciation pages from their teachers and peers. This week English teacher Melissa worked on some of her Senior Pages, which creatively repurpose old maps into new and beautiful cards of appreciation and good wishes for the future.

NCS AT HOME

Top: 5th-grader Wyatt plays in a river. Middle: Kentaro and Koga play badminton in the WallyPAC. Bottom: Tianyu cross-country skis.

This past week packed a punch of Adirondack spring weather conditions, from inches of fresh snow and overnight temperatures in the teens to sunny days in the sixties. Day student Wyatt sent photos of his time spent in one of our North Country rivers on a warmer day this week, while on-campus students Kentaro, Koga, and Tianyu adapted to the wintery conditions by engaging in some indoor badminton and embracing the cold for (perhaps) the last cross-country ski of the season.

Top: 7th-grader Sonya bakes a Mother’s Day pie. Middle: 6th-grader Samantha’s Mother’s Day waffle platter for her mother. Bottom: 6th-grader Will and his family’s seedlings.

Our students appreciated their mothers this past week by whipping up tasty treats using their Edible Schoolyard skills. 7th-grader Sonya baked her mother a beautiful apple pie, while 6th-grader Samantha and her younger brother prepared some waffles and fruit with a lovely holiday message. 6th-grader Will spent time with his family this week by helping care for the seedlings they’ve been growing in their North Country home. As temperatures continue to warm Will and his family will begin to move the plants outside for the season.

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Horses in the sunshine. Middle: Barn Manager Erica trains Sterling using a lunge line. Bottom: Horse Bo gets his hooves trimmed.

Spring at the barn is not only a time for baby animals, but is also when our horses get ready for the upcoming riding season. Though riding is currently paused at North Country School, Barn Manager Erica has been hard at work with our herd, making sure they are ready for spring after the long winter. This past week, Erica began getting horse Sterling ready for work by exercising him using a technique called lunging, where a horse is asked to move at different gaits while attached to a line, while the whole herd had their feet checked and trimmed.

Top: Jack and Sam help build an arbor in the Forest Garden. Middle: Jack builds an arbor. Bottom: Kale in the greenhouse.

The Forest Garden, located by the Upper Field, is a relatively new growing space on the North Country School and Camp Treetops campus. Forest gardens are low-maintenance, sustainable growing areas that incorporate native plants and woodland ecosystems to grow food within existing environments. Our Forest Garden is not just a space to grow fruit trees like beach plum and peach and herbs like mint and thyme, but is also a beautiful place to relax and enjoy nature. This past week, on-campus students and adults helped ready the Forest Garden for spring by planting trees, weeding out spaces, and building an arbor made from young cherry tree branches. Later in the season the arbor will be covered in climbing vines, providing a bit or shade on hot summer days. Meanwhile, our greenhouses continue to flourish, with hardy greens like kale that are ready to be picked and tomato seedlings that will be transplanted this week.

We hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy, and that your communities are caring for and supporting one another. We will continue to update you about our community throughout this time, and encourage you all to reach out to us as well.

CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY:

Mondays: Check our Facebook page every Monday for a video from our School Counselor, Lauren, on tips for getting through this challenging time. Last week Lauren shared some tips from one of her favorite authors, MJ Ryan, on how to survive chaos you didn't ask for.

Tuesdays: Creature Query- Barn Manager Erica Burns will be answering questions about the animals on our farm using fun and educational videos. In this week's Creature Query, Erica led a live barn tour. Check it out on our Facebook page.

Wednesdays: What’s Cooking at NCS and Camp Treetops?- Edible Schoolyard instructor Elie Rabinowitz, along with other community members, will provide simple recipes and cooking resources you can use to prepare delicious meals at home with your families. This past week Director of Technology Devon Jacobs showed us how to make ribs. Check out all of the recipes on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Thursdays: Birding with Jack- 6th grade English teacher Jack Kiernan will offer the NCS community an opportunity to connect through the world of birds by providing the resources to become familiar with birds that our community is seeing around the globe. If you are out for a walk or sitting at home, looking out the window, take a moment to log the birds you see with the NCS eBird account. Last week Jack taught us about red-winged blackbirds, a common sight in Adirondack wetlands. Check it out on our Facebook page.

Fridays: Check our Facebook page every Friday for a video featuring a Japanese mini-lesson by teacher Meredith Hanson. Last week Meredith talked about "Nana korobi, ya oki," a proverb that describes the ups and downs of life, and the importance of being resilient.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website:

www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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April 24, 2020

Photo: Farm intern Bri with a newborn lamb.

North Country School was founded in 1938 with a deep commitment to community—both within our own campus, as well as our larger global community. A respect for and responsibility to one another informs all that we do, from our daily barn chores and large-scale composting efforts to our collaborative artwork and social-justice themed theater productions. This past week has highlighted some of the ways we at NCS strive to support one another and connect to the larger world, and the ways we’ve had to adapt those goals since the distance between us has widened dramatically over the past few months.

This week the ewes in our barnyard gave birth to the first newborn lambs of the year. What is usually an all-community activity has transformed into a long-distance celebration of the hard work and thoughtful care provided by our farm staff to our barnyard creatures. We also celebrated Earth Day together as a community, though the event looked different than it has in recent years. With the assistance of technology, we were able to join together with the extended NCS family to celebrate our shared earth, and discuss ways we can continue to care for the planet. We were encouraged to see similar events put on by thoughtful communities all around the globe, and are inspired by the creative ways people continue to come together despite the new hurdles we face throughout these times apart.

Please keep sending us your photos, and we will add them to our NCS at Home: Spring 2020 photo library. Email photos to Becca Miller at [email protected].

Note: Our campus is closed to all students for the remainder of the school year, with the exception of the international students who remained here during spring break, rather than returning to their home countries during the early stages of the outbreak. These 18 students, along with our houseparents and faculty, are staying on campus and enjoying outdoor adventures in the contiguous wilderness during this time. They have been and will continue to take appropriate safety and prevention measures.

CREATIVITY AND CONNECTION

Top: Larry teaches Earth Science class in winter gear. Middle 1: Larry’s daughter, NCS 8th-grader Ella, helps him film a glacier lab. Middle 2: 8th-grader Eliza does her glacier lab at home. Middle 3: Elie teaches Spanish class from the NCS library. Bottom: Elie uses NCS alum Autumn’s Spanish children’s book as an example for the class.

As we work our way through the spring term, NCS teachers are finding new ways to engage students in dynamic lessons. This week in Earth science class, Larry—along with some help from his daughter and NCS 8th-grader Ella—got outside to demonstrate a glacier lab to his class on Zoom. The students then participated in their own lab from their homes around the world, freezing bags of sediments, ice cubes and water (using other substances if they didn’t have access to those resources). They then pushed their "glacier" around in their yards to examine how the object’s movement affected the ground beneath it. Each student drew their observations, which included seeing grooves, striations, erratics, and broken chunks of ice destined to be kettle ponds. In Elie’s Spanish class, students are beginning an ongoing project where they will be writing a children’s book in Spanish that takes place in a country of their choice. To show the class what their end product could look like, Elie read through an example made by 2018 NCS graduate Autumn about a pair of best friends living in Guatemala.

Top: Noni talks about NCS sustainability for Earth Day Town Meeting. Middle: Earth Day Town Meeting participants. Bottom: Buyerarchy of Needs screenshot from Earth Day presentation. Photo credit: Sarah Lazarovic.

Though we are currently separated by great distances, North Country School’s focus on community remains a crucial part of everyday life. This week we continued to adapt to the new structure of our lives by celebrating Earth Day together with the extended NCS family despite the space between us. In a morning Town Meeting event, faculty, staff, students, and families joined together on Zoom to talk about the significance of Earth Day, and the many ways we can care for the world around us. The gathering (which was attended by over 100 members of our extended community) featured passionate talks and poignant readings by many NCS adults, including a history of NCS’s expansive sustainability efforts recounted by art teacher Noni—the granddaughter of NCS founders Walter and Leonora Clark—and some helpful ideas on how to appreciate more and waste less by English teacher Melissa.

ART AND ADAPTATION

Top: NCS student work from the Lake Placid Center for the Arts’ Annual High School Art Show. Bottom: Tony practices piano for music class.

Like many aspects of life in this moment in time, art and creative expression looks a bit different for our NCS students than it did only months ago, but as the old adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Our need to express ourselves and create beauty remains unchanged, though the methods are ever-evolving both on the NCS campus and in our surrounding community. This past week we learned that many of our students had artwork accepted into the Lake Placid Center for the Arts Annual High School Art Show. Since visitors can’t view these works in person this year, the Center has changed the show into a digital exhibit that showcases the vibrant and powerful work created by talented students from around the North Country region. To see the NCS photographs, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and ceramic pieces that were selected for this annual show, click here.

Our musical students have also been adapting alongside teacher Joey, working on their own individual skills and collaborative projects from their own homes and in The Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center (WallyPAC) on the NCS campus. This week, Tony spent time in the NCS music studio to continue to work on his section of a group piece that will be showcased later in the term.

Top: Courtney teaches theater class. Middle: Through the Looking Glass script. Bottom: Sally rehearses her lines with Courtney over Zoom.

Though students will not be returning to the North Country School campus for our annual spring production of Alice in Wonderland, the show must go on. This week theater teacher Courtney continued her classes with the actors in the show, working through dialogue with individuals and groups over Zoom. Students Sally and Jessica ran through some of their lines for their roles as the White Queen and Alice, respectively. The production, which features five different students playing the titular role of Alice, will be recorded in pieces in students’ homes and edited together into a full-length show that will be shown at the end of the academic year.

A PLACE TO PLAY

Top: Cascade House plays badminton in the Pavilion. Middle 1: Koga plays in the Upper Field. Middle 2: Larry and Sierra host the Saturday Night Activity. Bottom: Saturday Night Activity participants show their work over Zoom.

Students and teachers on the North Country School campus found time for active play and lighthearted silliness this week. The students of Cascade House spent several out-times in the Pavilion playing some competitive ping pong, with sisters Jessica and Rebecca going head-to-head for several rounds, while the students living in Mountain House and Clark House played games of soccer, tennis, and Frisbee on the Upper Field by the Lake Hill. As temperatures continue to warm we hope to spend more time by the lake, paddling in canoes and relaxing at the boathouse.

This week marked the third remote Saturday Night Activity—part of our Connecting to the Community series. Teachers Larry and Sierra hosted the Reverse Auction activity, with students and adults participating via Zoom from their on-campus and off-campus homes. The scavenger-hunt style event was a huge success, with the students of Cascade House—clearly the team to beat—winning for the third week in a row!

NCS AT HOME

Top: Sisters Dominica and Kalina practice with their ice skating team via Zoom. Middle: 7th-grader JT bikes. Bottom: 7th-grader Colton hikes Balanced Rocks.

We were excited to see more updates from our students at home this week. We’re especially glad to see all the creative ways our community members are staying active and healthy during this time, whether it be inside or outdoors. Competitive ice skaters Dominica and Kalina have been training remotely with their teammates and coaches in Los Angeles from inside their North Country home. Though they are not able to train on the ice, the girls have been working hard on their jumping, conditioning, strength, flexibility, and ballet skills in their garage studio. 7th-graders JT and Colton have also been staying active with their respective families, spending afternoons and weekends biking around their local wooded trails and hiking through the wilderness to beautiful vistas.

Top: 9th-grader Jessica makes cream puffs. Middle 1: 8th-grader Hanna does her Earth science lab at home. Middle 2: 6th-grader Samantha attends class from home. Bottom: 6th-grader Will and his brother, Leo, make sticky buns from the “What’s Cooking at NCS and Camp Treetops?” blog.

NCS students have also been practicing their hobbies and schoolwork from their homes around the world. The students living in Cascade House have been experimenting with baking under the guidance of their houseparent Meredith. This past week the group continued working on their tasty kitchen creations by baking up a batch of homemade cream puffs. Students in Larry’s Earth science class sent photo-updates of their glacier lab, while 6th-grader Samantha sent along a picture of her working alongside a furry friend. NCS 6th-grader Will, along with his brother and Camp Treetops camper Leo, spent some time this week preparing a recipe from the What’s Cooking at NCS and Camp Treetops? Blog. Their finished sticky buns, made using Head of Kitchen Paulette Peduzzi’s recipe—a favorite for campers and students alike—looked like the perfect sweet morning treat.

SIGNS OF SPRING

Top: A rooster enjoys the warm weather. Middle 1: Horses in the sunshine. Middle 2: Newborn lamb twins with their mother. Middle 3: A newborn lamb. Bottom: Farm intern Nick with a newborn lamb.

Sunny skies have been drawing our farm animals into the outdoors lately, and Barn Manager Erica has been sending delightful updates from our different animal spaces throughout the week. Over in the chicken coop, the roosters and hens have been enjoying their time out in the yard, finding bugs and eating scratch, while the horses practiced social distancing while they posed for their group shot.

The real news from the farm this week was the start of our much-anticipated, and always joyful, lambing season. Each spring, as the birds return back to our feeders and the frog pond becomes a riot of peeps and croaks, we welcomed the arrival of our lambs. Lambing season at North Country School has always been a community event, with students witnessing our ewes giving birth and groups there to receive and care for newborn creatures as they join the world. The start of lambing this year has been a bittersweet time, as we are not able to join together and help each other in the ways we’d hoped, but Barn Manager Erica, along with farm interns Nick and Bri, have been caring for our barnyard creatures and sending us joyful updates each day. So far we have five new lambs in our flock, and are eagerly awaiting signs of labor from the remaining seven pregnant ewes. While we miss being a part of this special season and lending a hand on the farm, we are grateful to the barn staff for their thoughtful care and tireless work on behalf of our many barnyard animals.

Join us as we watch our flock live via Lamb Cam, streaming from our sheep barn throughout lambing season.

We hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy, and that your communities are caring for and supporting one another. We will continue to update you about our community throughout this time, and encourage you all to reach out to us as well.

CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY:

Mondays: Check our Facebook page every Monday for a video from our School Counselor, Lauren, on tips for getting through this challenging time.

Tuesdays: Creature Query- Barn Manager Erica Burns will be answering questions about the animals on our farm using fun and educational videos. Last week Erica taught us how to prepare our sheep’s wool for spinning. Check it out on our Facebook page.

Wednesdays: What’s Cooking at NCS and Camp Treetops?- Edible Schoolyard instructor Elie Rabinowitz, along with other community members, will provide simple recipes and cooking resources you can use to prepare delicious meals at home with your families. This past week Head of Kitchen Paulette Pedizzi shared her much-loved sticky bun recipe. Check out all of the recipes on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Thursdays: Birding with Jack- 6th grade English teacher Jack Kiernan will offer the NCS community an opportunity to connect through the world of birds by providing the resources to become familiar with birds that our community is seeing around the globe. If you are out for a walk or sitting at home, looking out the window, take a moment to log the birds you see with the NCS eBird account. Last week Jack shared a video that featured a Song Sparrow at the pond on campus. Check it out on our Facebook page.

Fridays: Check our Facebook page every Friday for a video featuring a Japanese mini-lesson by teacher Meredith Hanson. Last week Meredith shared some wisdom from around the world as she read a passage from the "Dao De Jing" by Lao Tzu.

Saturdays: The NCS Saturday Night Activity- Every Saturday at 8 p.m., NCS teacher Larry Robjent, along with other NCS faculty, will be hosting fun activities similar to those typically held on campus with students. Participate live from home with your own families. Last week, Larry and Sierra ran a reverse auction, and this coming Saturday, April 25, will feature NCS/CTT Trivia!

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website: www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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April 17, 2020

Photo: Chickens in the barnyard.

At North Country School the belief that nature is our master teacher is woven into all that we do. It is the thread that connects us to the majestic wild spaces that surround our 220-acre campus, to the seeds we sow each spring that become our food, and to the barnyard creatures that we care for together on our farm. The children who attend North Country School and Camp Treetops form a deep understanding of the life cycles of our natural world, and the lessons learned through that understanding are carried with them their entire lives. Observing the cycles of the natural world—the changing of the seasons, the sprouting of a seed, the growth of a seedling, the laying and hatching of an egg—can bring calm, appreciation, and reflection to our current lives where those peaceful moments may be in shorter supply. During a time when much of our community is scattered around the globe, we take solace in the fact that our current and past students and campers bring that connection to nature with them. We hope that, wherever you are, you can take a moment with your loved ones to observe and enjoy the outdoors. Know that we on the North Country School campus will be doing the same.

Please keep sending us your photos, and we will add them to our NCS at Home: Spring 2020 photo library. Email photos to [email protected].

Note: Our campus is closed to all students for the remainder of the school year, with the exception of the international students who remained here during spring break, rather than returning to their home countries during the early stages of the outbreak. These 18 students, along with our houseparents and faculty, are staying on campus and enjoying outdoor adventures in the contiguous wilderness during this time. They have been and will continue to take appropriate safety and prevention measures.

CREATIVITY AND CONNECTION

Top: Jack teaches 6th-grade English class. Middle: Gavi teaches 4th- and 5th-grade math class. Bottom: Gavi’s math lesson.

This week our teachers, like so many educators around the globe, continued to think of new and creative ways to engage with students. 6th-grade humanities teacher Jack introduced his class to a fun vocabulary game using the educational website Quizzizz, while 4th- and 5th-grade math teacher Gavi taught her class a fractions lesson using a tablet as a whiteboard, which allowed her to work through equations alongside the class in real-time.

Top: Cocona meets an Olympian on Zoom. Middle: 9th-grade English class poem. Bottom: Meredith teaches 9th-grade English class.

Japanese teacher Meredith and school nurse Shannon worked together this week to connect a US Olympian to several of our on-campus students. Four of our Japanese students, along with several other on-campus students, had the opportunity to talk over Zoom with Chris Kinney—a bobsledder on the US Olympic team whose grandmother is Japanese and who has worked in Japan. Chris competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and will be competing in Beijing in 2022. The students were able to ask Chris questions in both Japanese and English, and learned about what life looks like for an Olympic athlete.

Meredith’s 9th-grade English class has been studying poetry over the past two weeks, examining the different ways writers throughout history have used poetic writing to translate the human experience, and applying that concept to the challenges of our own time. This past week, the class read the poem “To Prisoners” by Gwendolyn Brooks, and watched a video of other writers and former prisoners discussing the work and its impact on their own lives. The class has also been working on their own poems about their experiences in nature. Below, find an excerpt from 9th-grader David’s untitled villanelle poem:

Then, I thought in the dark

I pictured myself, under an ice shelf, just by myself

I think, I reflect, I want to restart

Can't see trails, but I followed my heart

The light, it shines, in myself,

I came, I saw, I came, I saw the art

I think, I reflect, I want to restart

A PLACE TO PLAY

Top: Rebecca roasts a marshmallow. Middle: Roasting marshmallows. Bottom: Nurse Jess and her son, Wyatt, in a running race.

While life on the NCS campus may look different in many ways, students and adults are still getting in plenty of outdoor playtime. This past week, the students living in Cascade House made homemade marshmallows, and then roasted those marshmallows over a campfire by one of our lean-tos. Nurse Jess and her son, Wyatt, also took the time for a fun outside activity, participating in a “race around your house 5k” at the suggestion of Wyatt’s local elementary school.

Top: Badminton with stage lighting. Middle 1: Participating in the Saturday Night Activity from home. Photo Credit- Jane Mellow. Middle 2: Student Ella and her brother, Pete, participate in Harry Potter LARPing. Bottom: A clue from the Harry Potter LARPing activity.

Our students and adults put their creative spin on play this week, adding fun and surprising elements to more traditional activities. During out-time this week, the students living in Mountain House played badminton under colorful stage lighting in The Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center, which added an extra layer of drama to the competition. This week’s Saturday Night Activity brought our on- and off-campus community together to participate in a bridge-building competition using unconventional materials. Students, teachers, and alumni used spaghetti, string, tape, and a marshmallow to build their structures, with the students of Cascade House declared the ultimate winners of the competition. Our on-campus community also spent this past Saturday participating in a Harry Potter live action role playing quest organized by teachers Courtney and Melissa and farm intern Bri. Students and teachers were divided into Hogwarts Houses and given clues to locate and decipher at various spots around campus. Students traveled around our campus trails, exploring outbuildings and participating in battles in order to complete their magical adventure.

NCS AT HOME

Top: 9th-grader Bladen hikes Hurricane Mountain. Middle: 7th-grader Olivia does work from home. Bottom: Olivia participates in the NCS rainbow hunt activity.

Though the majority of our students are in their respective homes around the globe, we have been thrilled to see that they are still engaging in NCS skills and interests with their families. We have loved hearing from our long-distance community members as they explore the outdoors, cook, and engage in creative work. This week we received updates from 9th-grade day student Bladen, who hiked to the summit of nearby Hurricane Mountain with his mother, and from 7th-grader Olivia, who did some schoolwork beside a pond and participated in the NCS Find a Rainbow Challenge with her family.

Top: 7th-grader JT completes school work from home. Middle: 7th-grader Colton bakes the “What’s Cooking?” blueberry muffin recipe. Bottom: Sisters Dominica and Kalina bake a berry pie.

This week we also received updates from 7th-grader JT, who has been participating in his online classes from his local home as well as making progress on his fiber arts knitting projects. 7th-grader Colton and sisters Dominica and Kalina have been practicing their Edible Schoolyard skills with their families, with Colton baking the blueberry muffins featured on the “What’s Cooking at NCS/CTT” blog, and Dominica and Kalina cooking up a pot of egg drop soup and baking a colorful berry pie.

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Farm intern Nick harvests greens from the aeroponics room. Middle: Garlic sprouting in the field. Bottom: Spinach in the greenhouse.

Our barns and growing spaces have been busy with activity this week, with new green growth in the fields and the exciting start to harvesting in our aeroponics room. Farm interns Nick and Bri cut the first arugula, spinach, and mizuna greens from our aeroponic towers this week, and the delicious greens—which are grown without soil—were enjoyed in meals prepared by our kitchen staff.

Out in the fields, we saw the first bright green garlic shoots pushing through their mulched beds. The garlic was planted last fall by our 7th-grade Edible Schoolyard students, and welcoming the resilient crop after many months covered by snow and ice was an optimistic sign of good things on the horizon, as well as a warm reminder of the many hands that made light work of planting that crop. In the greenhouses we continued to harvest vibrant spinach greens, and look forward to the upcoming weeks when a bounty of herbs, greens, vegetables, and flowers will be filling the greenhouses and outdoor garden beds.

Top: Noni cares for the horses. Middle 1: Goats in the horse barn. Middle 2: Undyed spun wool. Bottom: Dyed wool hanging in the fiber arts studio.

Down at the barn, art teachers Noni and Katie have been helping Barn Manager Erica care for our many creatures, prepare our ewes for the upcoming lambing season, and ready our wool for use. Noni spent some time in the pasture with our horses, lending a hand with some necessary grooming as the herd sheds their thick winter coats. Meanwhile, our goats paid a social call to the horse barn, enjoying a snack of hay in the foyer. Erica and Noni also worked on skirting, or cleaning, our wool fleeces this week, as well as preparing our spun yarn for use in the fiber arts program. The spun scanes of yarn were brought to the art studio for dyeing and drying, and will soon be ready to be turned into students’ and campers’ future weaving and knitting projects.

We hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy, and that your communities are caring for and supporting one another. We will continue to update you about our community throughout this time, and encourage you all to reach out to us as well.

CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY:

Mondays: Check our Facebook page every Monday for a video from our School Counselor, Lauren, on tips for getting through this challenging time.

Tuesdays: Creature Query- Barn Manager Erica Burns will be answering questions about the animals on our farm using fun and educational videos. This week Erica taught us how to prepare our sheep’s wool for spinning. Check it out on our Facebook page.

Wednesdays: What’s Cooking at NCS and Camp Treetops?- Edible Schoolyard instructor Elie Rabinowitz, along with other community members, will provide simple recipes and cooking resources you can use to prepare delicious meals at home with your families. This week Garden Manager Tess will share a garden-fresh spinach and feta frittata recipe, and next week Head of Kitchen Paulette will show us how to make sticky buns. Check out all of the recipes on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Thursdays: Birding with Jack- 6th-grade English teacher Jack Kiernan will offer the NCS community an opportunity to connect through the world of birds by providing the resources to become familiar with birds that our community is seeing around the globe. If you are out for a walk or sitting at home, looking out the window, take a moment to log the birds you see with the NCS eBird account. Jack will provide videos and information about birds being logged, as well as birds he is seeing on his daily birding adventures! Check it out on our Facebook page and on Tumblr.

Fridays: Check our Facebook page every Friday for a video featuring a Japanese mini-lesson by teacher Meredith Hanson. This week Meredith talked about forest bathing, a Japanese practice of calmly being in nature.

Saturdays: The NCS Saturday Night Activity- Every Saturday at 8 p.m., NCS teacher Larry Robjent, along with other NCS faculty, will be hosting fun activities similar to those typically held on campus with students. Participate live from home with your own families. Last week, Larry and English teacher Melissa Orzechowski built bridges using 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of string, one yard of tape, and one marshmallow. This week, Larry and a guest host will run a reverse auction.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website: www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 4 years

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April 3, 2020

Grace reads a school book from home. Photo credit: Hudson Stephens.

Another week has come to a close at North Country School, and today we are feeling grateful for the support and patience we’ve received from parents and students as everyone has adjusted to distance learning and virtual classrooms. As you can imagine, implementing our hands-on, place-based academic philosophy has inherent challenges when many of our students can’t be here, in this place, with us. Thankfully the creativity, dedication, and resourcefulness of our students and teachers has shone through and made an unexpected transition flow seamlessly. We believe that the community we build here extends beyond our 220-acre campus, and the strength with which our community members have adapted to the pandemic crisis speaks greatly to that belief. Thank you.

With the uncertainty of current events, we’d like to remind you that we’re in this together. As always, we will share what our students are doing, both on and off campus, in this weekly blog. In addition, this week we launched a new “Connecting With Our Community” learning and activity series, which we hope will help keep us all connected in this difficult time. The first installment of our live Saturday Night Activity is tomorrow at 8 p.m. Use this Zoom link to watch or participate in the activity from home.

To learn more about the “Connecting With Our Community” series, check out the full schedule at the end of the blog. We would like to encourage all of you to keep engaging with us by sharing photos, messages, or videos by email or on social media. We hope someday soon we will all be together again.

CREATIVITY AND CONNECTION

Top: Bryan reads to 4th- and 5th-graders. Middle1: Meredith teaches ESL with a game. Middle 2: Sky does math work on Zoom. Middle 3: Max teaches his class live on Zoom. Bottom: Garth draws a math lesson on Zoom.

Throughout this extended period of distance learning, our academic teachers continue to find new ways to connect to our students. Caroline continued her English lesson on story analysis by bringing in guest readers including Dean of Students Bryan, Garden Manager Tess, and teachers Larry and Elie to read aloud to her 4th- and 5th-grade students. Fellow language teacher Meredith played a fun word game with her ESL class via Zoom. While students attended math lessons from their on-campus and off-campus homes, teachers in our math department tried out different dynamic methods of delivering curriculum and engaging their classes. Max led a live lesson with his 6th- and 7th-grade students from his classroom, while Garth used projected drawings to talk through geometry problems with his class.

ART AND ADAPTATION

Top: Faculty child and 8th grader Ella works on stagecraft. Middle1: Helen draws for her 2D art class. Middle 2: Rebecca throws ceramics on the wheel. Bottom: Tony records music for Joey’s music class.

The importance of art in childhood development has been part of North Country School’s core belief system since its inception in 1938, and that importance has only been underscored during this challenging time. Art can serve as a method of self-expression, a way to translate complicated feelings and thoughts, a release of tension, and a way to focus in meditation. As we settle into the new structure of education in this unique and difficult moment, NCS continues to believe in “art every day.” We will always prioritize art’s role in our students’ lives, whether they are on campus or at their respective homes around the world.

On-campus students took advantage of our art and tech spaces this week, taking a break from academic work to explore different modes of creativity. Ella continued work on theater set pieces in The Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center (WallyPac). Helen spent Sunday afternoon drawing in the studio art space for her 2D art class, while Rebecca spent that time working on her pottery skills in the neighboring ceramics studio. As part of a musical collaboration project for one of music teacher Joey’s performance classes, Tony spent an afternoon recording himself playing piano in the WallyPAC music production studio. Joey will be combining students’ separately-recorded instrumental parts into a collaborative song that celebrates our ability to create art together despite the physical distance that may separate us.

Top: Courtney teaches a theater class over Zoom with her children, Claire and Eleanor. Middle: Courtney’s theater class. Bottom: 7th grader Inyene learns she won a writing contest.

Art teachers at NCS have been making creative connections to off-campus students as well, encouraging relaxation and self-expression through art regardless of their location. Theater teacher Courtney led her class through the movement exercise Stop, Clap, Jump, Go this week via Zoom, with some help from her own children, Rosalie, Eleanor, and Claire. The fun game got everyone in the class out of their seats for some all-important silly play.

Courtney also had the honor of letting 7th-grader Inyene know that she was the winner of a creative writing theater competition this week. Inyene and her family were excited to learn that her original play, The Nerds, was selected from over 40 plays as the winner of the Pendragon Theatre’s Middle School Young Playwrights Festival competition. Her play will be performed with a full cast virtually via Zoom in late April.

A PLACE TO PLAY

Top: Hiking Balanced Rocks. Middle 1: Koga and Kyle play outside. Middle 2: Sky plays tennis. Middle 3: Sally plays soccer on the Upper Field. Bottom: Isaac “Rickrolls” his students over Zoom on April Fools’ Day.

Students and teachers at North Country School continued to get outside and play this week, taking advantage of warmer temperatures and the spectacular sanctuary of our surrounding landscape. A small group took a hike to nearby Balanced Rocks, enjoying the empty trail and expansive ledge, where they took in the view of campus far below. Our own 220-acre campus also served as its own playground, with students playing Frisbee on our grassy hill, and playing games of tennis and soccer on the Upper Field beside our Lake Hill. And since not all play needs to be outdoors, English teacher Isaac took the opportunity provided by April Fools’ Day to engage in a bit of lighthearted silliness with his class, beginning his Zoom lesson by “Rickrolling” in character to the music video “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

NCS AT HOME

Top: 8th grader Grace works on her fiber arts project at home. Photo credit: Hudson Stephens. Middle 1: 5th grader Wyatt shows a birthday sign over Zoom. Middle 2: 6th grader Samantha has “out-time” in her yard. Bottom: 5th grader Justin shows his class a lost tooth over Zoom.

Like much of the world right now, we at the NCS campus miss the friends and families that we can’t see in person each day, but we’ve been lucky to receive many exciting and heartwarming updates from those students and families who have been spending time together in their own homes. This week we learned that 8th-grader Grace has been working on knitting projects using skills taught to her by NCS fiber arts teacher Noni. Wyatt, along with his 4th- and 5th-grade classmates, made “Happy Birthday” signs for NCS Learning Skills Coach Kathi, who has been working with the class remotely from her North Country home. Sixth-grader Samantha sent in photos of her family participating in some active out-time activities that included getting out on their trampoline, and our youngest students, along with their teachers Caroline and Gavi, celebrated together from their homes around the world as 5th-grader Justin showed off his newly lost tooth.

SIGNS OF SPRING

Top: The sugarbush and the mountains. Middle 1: Farm intern Nick collects sap. Middle 2: Sap running through a spile. Middle 3: Horses in the pasture. Bottom: The goats say hello to our chickens.

Warm temperatures and sunny days have not only been a source of joy for us on the North Country School campus this week, they have also provided the perfect conditions for one of our long-held spring traditions—maple sugaring. The sap was flowing strong in our sugarbush all week, with over 1,000 gallons of sweet sap collected by our community members. The full buckets of sap were emptied into the sap collection tank and brought to the sugarhouse, where it will be boiled down into syrup this coming weekend. Each gallon of maple syrup takes 40 gallons of sap (and a great deal of work and time) to produce, and our hard-working farmers have already produced over 40 gallons of syrup this season.

The spring days have been a delight, not only to the people who live here, but also to the farm animals that share our mountain campus. Our chickens, sheep, goats, and horses have spent more time venturing out of their barn spaces this past week, basking in the sun together. We, along with our barnyard friends, look forward to more time spent out-of-doors in the upcoming weeks as the mountains become greener all around us, as the buds begin to open on the birch and poplar trees, and as the bluebirds and robins return to their beautiful Adirondack home.

We hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy, and that your communities are caring for and supporting one another. We will continue to update you about our mountain campus community throughout this time, and encourage you all to reach back out to us as well.

CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY:

Mondays: Check our Facebook page every Monday for a video from our School Counselor, Lauren, on tips for getting through this challenging time.

Wednesdays: What’s Cooking at NCS and Camp Treetops?- Our Edible Schoolyard instructor, Elie Rabinowitz, along with other community members, will provide simple recipes and cooking resources you can use to prepare delicious meals at home with your families. This past week’s lesson taught us how to make homemade flour tortillas! Check it out on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Thursdays: Birding with Jack- 6th grade English teacher Jack Kiernan will offer the NCS community an opportunity to connect through the world of birds by providing the resources to become familiar with birds that our community is seeing around the globe. If you are out for a walk or sitting at home, looking out the window, take a moment to log the birds you see with the NCS eBird account. Jack will provide videos and information about birds being logged, as well as birds he is seeing on his daily birding adventures! Check it out on our Facebook page and on Tumblr.

Fridays: Check our Facebook page every Friday for a video featuring a Japanese mini-lesson by teacher Meredith Hanson. Last week’s lesson taught us the word “wind,” as well as a poignant Japanese proverb using that word.

Saturdays: The NCS Saturday Night Activity- Teacher Larry Robjent, along with other NCS faculty, will be hosting fun activities similar those typically held on campus each Saturday evening with students. Participate live from home with your own families. Check out this Saturday’s activity, House Olympics, on Facebook and connect via Zoom!

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website: www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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northcountryschool · 5 years

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February 14, 2020

This past Friday the NCS community enjoyed a rare and joy-filled surprise when morning classes were cancelled for a snow day. With heavy snow in the forecast and drive-on students and staff staying off the roads for safety, our boarding students and faculty took a break from academic classes to enjoy some morning play time. The ski hill was opened for skiers and snowboarders, and a movie was offered in The Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center theater for those who wanted a ski break or a more mellow activity. When the snowfall stopped we’d accumulated over a foot of fresh powder that set the stage for a week filled with snowy fun.

In our arts program, some students prepared for robot battles while others saw their hard work come to fruition with their performance of the play Seedfolks. Meanwhile, down on our farm students and farmers prepared for the upcoming arrival of new baby animals.

Note: We have slightly restructured the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog. Enjoy the new blog format below!

ACADEMICS

Top: Rob explains how to make rope. Middle: Duncan, Piers, and Justin make rope. Bottom: Justin’s rope.

This week our 4th- and 5th-grade social studies students welcomed a special guest when 7th-grade teacher Rob stopped by to show the group how to use raffia to make cordage. For the project, which connects to the class unit on ancient South America, each student will make a length of rope to be used for their own version of a quipu—an ancient Incan device used to record information by knotting colored threads in different ways. Rob, who also works at NCS sister organization Camp Treetops, has led a similar activity with campers during the summer.

Top: Cocona and Steven look at Spanish descriptions. Middle: Tiri looks at monster drawings. Bottom: Lettered monster drawings.

In Spanish 1 class, students participated in a fun activity using Spanish paragraphs they wrote describing an imaginary monster. Their paragraphs described their monster’s appearance, their monster’s favorite activities, and their monster's personality. Each student then drew a picture of their monster based on that description. After each monster was separated from its description, students were challenged to match their classmates’ drawings to the corresponding description. The activity highlighted using verbs including ser, tener, and gustar, and allowed the group to practice subject/adjective agreement.

ARTS

Top: Tristan holds his robot. Bottom: Jenny and Frederick program their robots.

NCS offers several industrial arts classes including computer programming, music production, and robotics. This week students in our robotics class completed the basic builds of their robots using Lego Mindstorm EV3 software. Students including Jenny, Frederick, and Tristan have been programming sensors to direct the movement and actions of their robots based on distance, colors, and motion.

Top: A robot battle. Bottom: Frederick, Daven, Tristan, and Koga watch a robot battle.

Students placed their in-progress robots on the floor for test battles, the goal of which is for each robot to push its opponents off the edge of the circle. As the term progresses students will also be programming their robots to complete complicated courses and tasks laid out by teachers Dave and Bryan.

Top: The cast of Seedfolks. Middle: Tyler and former NCS student Anja in Seedfolks. Bottom: Seedfolks scene. Photo credit: Michael Aldridge, Northwood School.

Theater teacher Courtney’s class has spent the winter term working in collaboration with Northwood School—a boarding high school located in Lake Placid—to put on a production of Seedfolks at Lake Placid Center for the Arts. Seedfolks is about a diverse group of people that join together to build a community garden. The story reinforces powerful themes of overcoming differences in polarizing times. The play, which was performed this past Tuesday and Wednesday, featured over 40 NCS and Northwood students, and saw several NCS alumni including Anja, Thebe, and Kendin take the stage with current NCS students including Tyler, Steven, Azalech, Jessica, and Rebecca.

OUTDOORS

Top: Snow-covered campus. Middle: Hunger Games out-time. Bottom: Josh goes over a jump.

This week our campus was covered in over a foot of fresh snow, creating the perfect playground for weekend and out-time fun. One out-time this week saw students including Tianyu, Daven, and Brian participating in an NCS favorite activity; a snowy Hunger Games roleplay. Another activity brought cross-country skiers around campus trails to try out some small jumps and hills.

Top: Jessica, Silvia, and Jack have a snowball fight. Bottom: Wyatt enjoys the snow.

This week provided the perfect conditions for other NCS out-time favorites including sledding, snowball fighting, and snow-fort building around campus and on our sledding and lake hills.

Top: The view from the Jackrabbit Trail. Middle: Skiing up the Jackrabbit Trail. Bottom: Skiing the Van Ho trails.

Cross-country skiers had plenty of spots to explore this week, both on and off campus. One Saturday trip saw students including Inyene, Frank, and Amon venturing out on cross-country ski adventures on the Jackrabbit Trail and Mt. Van Hoevenberg Cross Country and Biathlon Center, both of which are accessible by skis from the NCS campus. Teachers Noni and Matu led the group through thick powder, taking fluffy downhill runs and sometimes challenging uphill treks, and were rewarded with incredible views of the surrounding High Peaks.

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Erica explains why we have chicks on the farm. Middle: Chick information board. Bottom: Abigail and Grace set up the chick brooder.

Next week we will see the arrival of over 100 baby chicks, and to make sure the barn is ready to receive the new arrivals, this past Monday Barn Manager Erica led an out-time to properly set up the space. To begin the out-time, Erica led students including Grace, Abigail, Josie, and Edie in a short lesson on why we have chicks on the farm, and what chicks need in order to be happy and healthy. The group then began to set up a brooder for the tiny baby birds.

Top: Erica, Abigail, and Josie set up a heat lamp. Middle: Abigail and Josie test a heat lamp. Bottom: A historic photograph of chickens and ducks at NCS/CTT.

In addition to a brooder filled with wood shavings, the chicks will need a clean waterer, feeder, and heat lamp. Josie and Abigail worked with Erica to set up and then test a heat lamp to make sure the baby birds will be warm enough when they arrive. The students helping prepare the barnyard for the new chicks follow in a long line of students and campers at North Country School and Camp Treetops, who have been helping the community care for the animals that provide us with meat, eggs, wool, and recreation since the school’s inception in the 1930s.

Check back next week to see what we’re up to on our mountain campus.

For more information about the #This Week At NCS blog, contact Becca Miller at [email protected].

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website: www.northcountryschool.org

#ThisWeekAtNCS

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