Chalk Talk, the Sequim Gazette’s school news page, has a new name: @SequimSchools, the district’s user name on Twitter). The new name reflects the impact of technology on today’s classroom and the significant impact of social media on how we communicate. Each week, @SequimSchools will highlight some exciting accomplishments and events taking place in Sequim schools.
DISTRICT
Our first priority is the safety of our students. During the cold weather season, please read over the district’s Inclement Weather/School Closure Information for 2016-2017 School Year on the district website under Parent Resources. The decision to open, close or delay the school start time can be complicated due to changing and unpredictable weather occurrences.
A public forum is scheduled from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, in the Sequim High School library, 601 N. Sequim Ave., to present information on the two levy resolutions on the Feb. 14 special election ballot. After a short presentation by Superintendent Gary Neal, questions will be taken. For more information on the levy resolutions, call the district office at 582-3260.
Family Reading Night is from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, at Sequim Middle School, 301 W. Hendrickson Road. Teacher/librarians Sheri Kruckeberg/Helen Haller Elementary, Dena Riccobene/Greywolf Elementary, Elizabeth Lawson/Sequim Middle School and Linsay Rapelje/ Sequim High School have once again put their heads together to prepare for an evening of fun for the entire family, featuring free books, gift cards and prizes for all ages. Lots of activities, free books and no admission fee! Information about obtaining a public library card will be available as well. For more information, contact Lawson at 582-3515 or elawson@sequim.k12.wa.us.
There is no school on Monday, Jan. 30, for students. The district office will be open.
For the most up-to-date information on school events, check out the district’s website at www.sequim.k12.wa.us, and click on the Calendar button.
GREYWOLF
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
As the fall trimester ended we recognized our Early Bird Superstar students who love to read and came faithfully many mornings. These kids revved up their brains each day with a good dose of facts or fiction for fun! The following kids received new books to take home and prizes for their effort: Ethan Booth, Rihanna Carpenter, Kendra Dodson, Alexandra Edgecombe, Cody Jilg, Lisa Lopez, Dominic Martinez, Ella McFarland, Jonah McFarland, Emma Simpson, Elise Sundin and Caleb Taylor. Congratulations, readers!
HELEN HALLER
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Susan Dufner’s second-graders having begun learning to write opinions. We learned the difference between a fact and an opinion. We learned that we are more likely to think that an opinion is a fact if we agree with it.
We also learned that our opinions carry more weight if we follow them up with facts.
To help learn this, we read Judi Barrett’s book, “Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothes.” We then decided to write, type and publish our own class version of this humorous story, backing up our opinions with some facts. Later in the year, during our studies of the War of 1812, we’ll apply what we learned about forming opinions to write a letter to President James Madison with our opinion about entering this historic war.
Animals should definitely not wear clothes …
… because a bighorn sheep would get its horns all mixed up (Hunter Muckley)
… because the dress on a monkey would stretch out (Brooklyn McHaffie–Fatherson)
… because a baby fox would chase its tail (Glenna Krieger)
… because a butterfly would get tangled up and fall (Arianna Arriola)
… because a pig would get all muddy (Izabella Rich)
… because a seal would get it soggy (Bailey Johnson)
… because an elephant would stretch it out (Kaydence Arias)
… because a deer would get a shirt caught on its antlers (Toby Tauran)
… because a fish would get it wet and it would stretch out (Finnley Rosey)
… because a lion would run so fast that the clothes would rip off (Trinity Morefield)
… because a pitbull would use his paw to get it off and he would not like it (Riley Kelbel)
… because a horse would forget to tie his shoes (Kora Gilliam)
SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL
Senior Riley Chalk wanted to share his passion for tea with classmates. After an announcement over the school intercom, a handful of students showed up to a meeting, then news spread through word of mouth, which brought others in subsequent weeks.
During tea time, Riley talks about the art of brewing tea. Around 10 students gather each week at a round table in Nellie Bridge’s classroom, each sipping from cups of the brew of the day. As they sip, they have conversation about how their day went, politics and whatever else is going on.
“It’s not an official school club,” Riley explained.
The group always is on the lookout for different teas to try. “In this cold season, warmer flavors, like cinnamon apple, have been especially appreciated,” Riley said. Venturing out to visit local tea shops is part of their planned activities.
Ninth-grader Seth Johnson has promised to take on leadership of the group for the next school year.
Fourth Friday Readings will feature two students, seniors Harley Davidson and Claire Nakagawara, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, at The Lodge.
Here is original prose by Claire Nakagawara:
“Yours”
This is yours,
As are smirks thrashing across sullen hills,
Of a raspberry pink, quirking plea,
Now subconsciously imagining strokes,
From something other than staggering scrapes,
With the aim of neatly dimmed appetites,
That I may swallow and forget with ease,
But this acrid substance is not soluble.
This is yours,
Your constant centricity I orbit,
Always volition-less spirals etching,
In a crazed pattern of fanciful tries,
To make my skin still and patient,
Not raise and dance back towards solitude,
That husk I wear in ignorant substitution,
For your death-searing contact jolting through me.
This is yours,
The new pain of living; roiling-flourishing,
Through once barren landscapes freshly yawning,
Inside silvery thoughts like cruel, bored monsoons,
Now streaked with garnet and emerald you,
Blood and growth reclaimed in my pulse once more,
And I’m sorry my words allude to love,
But my cold hands shrivel in natural fear.
These are yours,
Mad talks with sublime, but naïve wishes,
Limping breaths, the bracing of stormy nerves,
When I am too honest, all lustrous wants,
Urging me to walk a rot ridden bridge,
Linking chimaera aglow with dumb truths,
Quickly snuffed out by callous life,
That waits in apathy on the other side.
This is yours,
A start so full, it is a toothy end;
The reckoning of pieces of myself,
Integral to progress, long held shackled,
By the harsh strike of clever, steel toed fear,
Now liberated, but blind and stumbling,
Their foolish, newborn steps dash stubbornly,
To whisper night-spun vows in your eager ears.
“Incense”
Like gasoline, it’s a scent you can’t not have an opinion on. A musk your nose draws in with alarming fascination, or refuses in vehement repulsion. For those intrigued souls, it becomes a strange pleasantry. Tested in gradual sips of breath, lengthening into slithering inhalations. Attractively, it treads the boundary between grotesque and tantalizing. It is a bold non-conformist. A flowery girl with an ominous reputation. That reliable source of forbidden nostalgia you latch on to in the unsympathetic vehicle of lost seconds and minutes, burned into the pores of asphalt beneath black tires. Forever turning, skidding, erasing.
“Sweater Fuzz”
Pieces of sweater fuzz. Those nebulous, forgotten memories. They cling desperately to an apathetic exterior. Gather in the wisps of your hair. Phantoms that never sink into your consciousness’ pensive swims. The ones that can’t recall how to haunt. Once their barely material bodies were scraps of something greater, a place of warmth. Somewhere anxieties and shards of jumbled conversation held no power.
Fallen Angels. Strips of life. You sway, sick with want to reclaim them. But the winds of time and sullen Washington heavens pocket them as souvenirs like disinterested tourists. The only power you possess now is to personally give them to the ravenous currents. Watch them lift upon the breeze’s soft back. Rise amongst airborne dandelion seeds; trail into the unknown.
It’s strangely eerie how seamlessly they thread into the lilac tapestry of a young dawn. Become part of a world far more immense than the confines of your soul and lumbering shadows of the past. They make those unforgotten remnants easier to cherish. Render your molting sweater a more significant comfort. What remains is worth more than its entirety.
Winter Ball is from 8-11 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, in the high school cafeteria.
Course Change Request forms for second semester are available in the Counseling office. Requests are due back to the Counseling office by Friday, Jan. 20, before 3:15 p.m. Changes will be made only if there is space available and according to the following priorities: unassigned periods, missing graduation requirement and academic placement change. Changes will not be made for lunch or teacher preference. A parent signature is required on the form.
