Middle School Social Networking Presentation

Check out this presentation on Social Networking in the Middle School which includes facts, figures, quotes, and survey results from Garrison Forest 6th-8th Graders. Initially intended to inform Garrison Forest parents about what is "out there" in social networking, the presentation has been great for the girls to see and discuss as well!

Created by: Lindsay Kelland (Digital Thinking Teacher)

7th Grade Three Word Video

7th Grade Three Word Video

As an annual digital thinking project the seventh grade has been working on their individual “Three Word Video". For this project we were instructed by Mrs. Kelland to create a video, broadcasting three words you would like to say to the world. Some of the words existed of “Make A Wish”, “Use your imagination”, and many more. All the words reflected what was important to girls personally and was especially amazing to see how they creatively displayed their words. As another aspect to the project, the seventh grade was challenged to display their words without speaking. Either written on a whiteboard or typed on a piece of paper, everyone showed their own words differently and in a inspiring way. Check out our video above!


Written By: Claire McMahon

6th Graders raise money for Water Well project

Click here to watch our 6th Grade Water PSA Video! 

In our Digital Thinking class with Mrs. Kelland, the 6th Grade has been brainstorming ways that we can make a difference. We began by talking about things in the world that were important to us--animal abuse, hungry children, the environment, etc. After seeing the Traveling Teacher blog created by Mrs. Gross, we decided that provided clean drinking water for people in developing countries was a cause we could really get behind.

Our first step was to do research. Each Sixth Grade class divided into groups to find information. The groups we could choose from were organizations, engineering, global correspondents, ambassadors, and water health. Each group found information and presented to the class so we could be more aware of what was happening. Then, we began to brainstorm about what we could do to help!

Then, we chose new groups based on what our interest and expertise areas were. We could choose from creating fundraisers, choosing the organization to donate to, designing a public service announcement, and writing for the Grizzly Gazette and GFSGrizzlies twitter. Each group has been focusing on our areas. Our group all decided to work on Grizzly Gazette which is the Garrison Forest Middle School blog. The Grizzly Gazette is now being updated  more frequently and usually has something interesting to read or look at. We will be posting pictures and notes about different school events to keep everybody updated. We want everyone to know we are trying to make a difference!

For fundraising, the Sixth Grade had a lot of ideas about what we could do to help. We went through and selected ideas that we thought would work. The fundraising group chose to do a restaurant night and a bake sale. Our restaurant night will be on Wednesday, May 2nd at Mia Carolina Restaurant in Glyndon, MD. The restaurant is owned by Caroline Cohen’s father and has excellent Italian food. 15% of the profits from that evening will go towards our cause and to benefit wonderful organizations! We encourage everyone to come. Stay tuned for more details about the bake sale.
On Tuesday, April 17th Water for People organization volunteers, Ms. Cidney Scanlon and Ms. Dana Woher, traveled to Garrison Forest from Washington, DC to talk to the Fifth and Sixth Grade about the use of water and how we can help countries that do not have clean water like we do. They talked about how much water we use and how we can cut down on our water supply. An example of how much water we use is in our clothes (shirts, pants, etc.), food (tomatoes, beef, etc.) and paper consumption. For example, every time you ride in the car or take a bus you use water--lots of it. Cars and buses need water in their engines or they won't run. Imagine not being able to get water when ever you wanted it. Now imagine that when you do get water that it is not clean and makes you sick. What would you do if this was your life? Well some people really do live this way, so why don’t you try to find ways that you can help? We will update next week with our progress. Thanks for reading!

By: Eve A., Semira N., Camryn C., Lexi S., Madison W., Cara Z., Emily W., and Natalie N.

7th Grade Holocaust Project

7^th Grade Learns about the Holocaust

Recently, the Garrison Forest 7^th Grade has been learning about the Holocaust through many different angles. To begin the new topic, the script of ‘Anne Frank’ was introduced to us, and we read through it carefully in our English classes. We talked about the history behind the Anne Frank script and studied the Anne Frank website. Then, we began to compose letters to Holocaust Survivors, which we researched on The Holocaust Survivor Website. All three classes really enjoyed asking questions in their letter. 

Then, in our Digital Thinking classes, we each created our own digital stories on Final Cut Express or iMovie, adding pictures with transitions and effects. We also watched the film “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” which was emotional and allowed us to reflect on the time period. It really played a big role in learning about the Holocaust. And finally, after Spring Break, we were fortunate enough to have Mrs. Debbie Levy and her mother, Jutta Levy, visit the Middle School. Jutta Levy is a Holocaust survivor, and her daughter Debbie Levy is the author of “A Year of Goodbyes.” A true story about Jutta, which Mrs. Levy found through a “poesie book” which was a friendship book. A poesie book was poetry written by friends and family. It was a wonderful experience to learn so much about this staining shadow in our history today, and we hope that the next 7^th Graders will enjoy it as much as we did.

Written by Mallory H.

Created by Rebecca B

HONK! Jr. Musical

by Ashley W. and Claire M.

SUMMARY

 

In Garrison Forest Middle School, there is a musical every year.  In the 2011 - 2012 academic year, HONK! Jr. was performed.  HONK! describes  the story of the ugly duckling, called Ugly.  Ugly, his mother, Ida, his father, Drake, and his brothers and sisters go to the duck yard to meet everyone.  They find him ugly, so they shun him.  There are only two people that care about him; Ida, and the Cat, who wants to eat Ugly.  The Cat finds Ugly, and convinces Ugly to come with him to his kitchen, where the Cat can cook and eat Ugly.  Ugly escapes and goes on a number of adventures, with and without the Cat.  At the end, Ugly realizes that he is a swan and there is a happy ending.

CREATING THE PROPS, SET, AND COSTUMES 

Creating the set and props was no easy job.  The costumes were almost as hard.  For Ugly’s egg, which he emerges towards the beginning of the play, we cut a piece of plywood into an egg shape.  We then cut it in half and attached foam.  We finished it by painting it brown and splatter-painting it with white. At the start of the play, season costume crew was put to work by clearing out anything we could use in the unending costume room. They found loads of great ideas and presented them to Mrs. Herlein to be evaluated. Once they finalized the costumes for the main characters, it was time to decide for the rest of the cast. We got together and brainstormed on what different birds would be costumed as and a few days later the amazing costume crew was already at it! Everyone was fitted and ready to go by the fabulous costume designer and parent, Mrs. Conner! The ensemble had close to no time to change for each scene.  One time block was about two minutes long!  In that time block the ensemble had to take off a tunic, tie on a headband, find a huge piece of fabric, take off a swim cap, and remove their shoes!

OUR FAVORITES 

Out of all of the scenes in the production the one scene we loved performing was “Look At Him”. In this scene we, the duck yard, were ridiculing Ugly when we first saw his horrid appearance. It was our favorite scene because everyone was on stage and we had a chance to act comically mean. The scene that took the most time to choreograph was “Wild Goose Chase”, because we had so many different ideas for each dance!  This scene entails Ugly meeting Greylag and Greylag getting his goose “militia” to find Ugly’s mother.  The hardest scene to dance to was “Warts and All” because the dance started out being really complicated.  We had started out with about twenty froglet dancers and went down to about eight due to lack of space and things like that.  Mrs. Herlein found us some pretty crazy costumes to wear, consisting of green tunics, felt belts, green flowers, and green swim caps.  Our last favorite was the Blizzard scene, because of its beauty and the message was very dramatic.  We decided that the ensemble would “be” the snow.  We had six ensemble members hold ends of long sheets of fabric.  The would move them up and down with the music to create the image of snow.  Claire and I actually held the middle sheet and it was hard to stay in sync with the other fabrics!  Since there were three pieces of fabric, the front and the back would move theirs at the same time then our sheet, the middle one, would move at different times.  It was really fun, but we needed complete focus to stay on task and still look like snowflakes.

Directed by: Rachel Herlein

Music: Virginia Flynn

Stage Manager: Megan Hamilton

Set Design: Scott Herlein

Characters

Ugly - Jenny Yarmis

Ida - Sophie Polovoy

Drake - Kara Frazier

The Ducklings - Mallory Higgins, Alli Schimmel, Raquel Hyatt & Molly Cohen

Maureen - Brooke Gordon

The Cat - Maggie Baughman

Greylag - Livy Ayd

Dot - Mimi N’Diaye

Barnacles - Virginia Bonsal

Snowy - Lindsey Callaway

Pinkfoot - Abi Balkin

Blizzard Soloists - Julia Connor and Ashlei Chang

The Bullfrog - Olivia Herlein

Penny - Jaida Maller

Bewick - Elise Lyght

Grace - Princess Gray

The Turkey - Emily Oleisky

Henrietta - Vasi Argeroplos

Maggie Pie - Emma Balkin

Camera Man - Anjali Sharma

Boom Microphone - Julia Connor

The Farmer/Father Swan - Victoria Bennett

Mother Swan/Makeup Artist - Emily Martin

Bewick - Elise Lyght

The Black Swan Dancer - Jenny Wiener

Ensemble - Ashley Wells, Eryn Frazier, Elizabeth Nimetz, Ayanna Dorsey, Catherine Benjamin, Anjali Sharma, Niyi Owolabi, Davis Holmes, Brielle Herlein, Claire McMahon & Nylah Austin  

Stage Chorus - Leigh Hardy, J-Mae Ferguson, Olivia McCall, Erica Downing, Jackie Magaha, Margaret Hyde, & Lily Nisbet

Crew

Costume Crew - Head: Virginia Leach, Lizzie Bonsal, Megan Lansman, Kennedy Jenkins,

Prop Crew - Head: Sakinah Rushdan, Atallah N’Diaye, Nia Tyson, Lila Yerman, Izzy Gold

House Crew - Head: Sarah Steinberg, Sophie Berger, Madison Wilson, Jillian Quartner

Light and Sound - Dai Hayden, Ryley Young, Channing Ch, Taylor Tilson

Stage Managers - Julianna Martinez, Brooke Fruman

Congratulations CHORUS!

On Friday May 20, 2011 the Garrison Forest Middle School Chorus went to a competition at Hershey Park. (To read more about our trip, read Sophie’s blog from last week). Our group of 39 students had been preparing for months, and when the day arrived we were all very nervous. We left school at 8:00 am so that we could arrive in time to sing our songs at Hershey. 

The selections we sang that day included When I Close My Eyes, our warm-up song, and our two judged ieces, Round Rolling Moon and Dirait-on. Dirait-on was a very hard piece to learn because it is listed as a High School choir piece in the state of Maryland. We sang these selections in a church that was just a couple miles from Hershey, so after we had sung we left for the park. 

"Round Rolling Moon" ; Music in Our Parks Competition in Hershey, PA. 5.20.11

"Dairot-an"; Music in Our Parks Competition in Hershey, PA. 5.20.11

Our Choral Director, Mrs. Flynn, was telling us how great we did on the ride from the Church to Hershey. In the past she has be a choral judge and she told us that if she had been judge us she would have given us superior. At first we didn’t believe her. We thought she was just saying that because she was our director, but little did we know that she was telling the truth.

 

After we sang and realized we had done our best, we were excited to be able to enjoy hours of fun in Hershey Park. We split up into groups and got to walk around the park by ourselves. We got to do many fun things including rides, rollercoasters, and 4-D movies. We also got to stock up on Candy and Goodies when some of the chorus got to go on a trip to Hershey World.

After all of the fun was over it was time to head to the Hershey arena for the awards ceremony. When we heard that the women’s choir awards were going to be announced we became quite eager. After we didn’t win second place in the women’s division we thought we had no chance. Then they announced the 1^st place women’s choir and the school that won was us! We were overjoyed and very excited. 


We were glad we had won after all. We thought we were very lucky to win that award but the really prize came when the Garrison Forest Middle School Choir won best overall chorus including women, men’s, mixed, and treble choirs. 

On the bus ride back we were all very proud but the person who we owe it all to is our director, Mrs. Flynn. We would’ve never come this far with this much confidence without her. At the end of the day we were proud to be representing Garrison Forest School and hope we can do this well in years to come!

-- Text by Emily Oleisky (Class of 2016); Videos and photos courtesy of Mrs. Mary Stewart and Mrs. Rachel Herlein

Spring Arts Gala Videos

We hope everyone enjoyed the Spring Arts Gala last night! Here are the videos screened during the Digital Thinking and Art section:

Seventh Grade students in Digital Thinking II learned Photoshop CS5 during Quarter 3. Each team had to choose a theme, research photographs from the 1980s and earlier, and then create a project that fluidly combined all of the photos. Most of the images you will now see are made up of between 6 and 25 images.



Inspired by the Walter Wick exhibit at the Walter Museum in Baltimore, MD, the Sixth Graders created Stop Action videos. The sets were created in Art class. In Digital Thinking I, the girls wrote the screenplays, photographed, composed music, and edited it all together in Final Cut Express. The videos contained over 300 images and more than 40 audio clips.


"The Tale of the Two Twincesses" -- Long, long ago in a land of Kings and Queens, two princesses were born. As Castle rule stated, there could only be one princess, so one child was taken away. Will the princess ever be reunited? (by Ali B., Maggie B., and Kayla B., class of 2017)




"It's Not All About the Looks" -- A group of friends receive a visit from a strange stranger who attempts to teach them an important lesson. (by Channing C. and Colby Y., Class of 2017)

Behind the Scenes - The Making of Stop Action Videos

Mrs. Stewart assisting Hannah D. with Fire

This whole project started in December of 2010, when the Sixth Grade took a trip to the Walters Art Museum. We saw a whole exhibit on Walter Wick, and saw his amazing scenes built for his books’ photographs. We were thunder-struck by how awesome they were! When we returned to school after winter break, we started building and designing scenes in Art. Our group was assigned Medieval Exterior, so we built a castle and a winter scene. It took a long time, and a lot of paint, but we finished by Spring Break.

Once we finished making our sets, it was time to start writing our stories, we used a few Digital Thinking classes to brainstorm and write our story’s plot. Then, we wrote a script for our story. Once we had our plot planned out, we needed to bring in toy characters to be in our videos. Then, we started shooting. This was a very long process, because for every second we had to take about 7 photographs. It was important that we kept the camera in the same position to avoid a choppy video.  At first it seemed impossible to shoot a stop action movie, but everyone worked so hard, and did it really well. 

Editing in Final Cut Express

Once we had all of our pictures, it took a long time to get them all organized in the S:Drive. There were so many pictures, and many weren’t organized. After hard work to get them all in the right places, we could finally start to import them in to Final Cut Express on the iMac computers. We grouped them together by scene, and then we added voiceovers. We decided which characters each of us would act as, and then we began recording. Since we were all working in the same room together, to ensure that no background noises were in our recordings, we called, “Quiet on the Set!” It took a while to record, but it was really fun. 

Adding Voice-Overs and Sound Effects

Fun facts about the Stop Action Movies, Sets, and the Process!

• Our scenes are made mostly out of trash.
• It takes around 7 photographs to make 1 second of film
• When finished editing you can have as much as 5 tracks playing at once.
• It took ½ a school year to create 3 minutes of film.
• The most popular set-building materials are legos, cardboard boxes, tubes and fake grass.

-- Text by Ali B. and Maggie B. (Class of 2017); Photos & Videos by Diana Gross

SINGING at HERSHEY PARK

Performing for the Newly Accepted Students, 5/10/11

Isabella Z. and Kara F. at Rehearsal

 Since I have been in Middle School, the chorus has always done some amazing performances.  Whether it was rocking out to ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, or singing a song from Camp Rock, the chorus always seems to impress. This year I decided to join because I wanted to be a part of the group.

Jenny Y. and Sakinah R. at Rehearsal

This year so far, we have sung songs such as ‘Round Rolling Moon’, ‘When I Close my Eyes’, and ‘Waka Waka’. We have performed in places such as Morning Meeting, the Arts Galas, the Upper School Winter Recital, and many more. Chorus has been a great learning experience for me.  It has taught me much more about singing than I had known. Although we practice for only twenty minutes a week, we are able to get a lot accomplished.

This year, Mrs. Flynn has organized for us to be in a competition at Hershey Park!  We will be performing against schools from all over Maryland this Friday, 20^th. Even though I hope we win, I know that our chorus will be respectful and polite to whomever the winner may be. Still, I hope we come back with a trophy! Wish us luck!

-- Text and Photos by Sophie Polovoy (Class of 2016)

CHEERLEADING at THE FOREST

As most people in the Middle School at Garrison Forest School knows, we have clubs. One of the clubs is cheerleading! A new club made by students, two students to be exact Emma A. and Jamie G., they have worked so hard to make this club and now it is finally here. The cheerleading club includes girls from each grade:

 8^th grade: Miana M, Lexi H, Ashley B, Amanda C, Ali G

7^th grade: Emma A (captain), Jamie G (co-captain), Erica D, Nylah A, Ayanna D, Ashlei C, Princess G.

6^th grade: Eryn F, Colby y, Augusta W, Jaida M, and Lindsey L.

Even though it is the end of the school year the cheer leading club has done so much: play days, morning meetings and the talent show! 

The talent show was probably the best in my opinion even though only Emma A, Jamie G, Erica D, Princess G, and Eryn F participated in it. We are happy with the people we had and we had 1 person who was not in the club: Bella Z. Even though she was not in the club we had room for one more. The talent show was a week away, so we made one cheer and one dance all in just five days! We met several times during lunch, study halls, help sessions, advisory or at someone’s house! The song we chose to do the dance on is “Born this Way” by Lady Gaga, and I think the dance actually goes with the song. We luckily finished the dance and cheer in time for the talent show. Even though we didn’t win the Talent Show, we won in our hearts because we had fun and making the dance and performing. I hope you will have fun and take some time to watch our dance/cheer in the video below.

Text and Photos by Erica Downing (Class of 2016); Video by Hallie Angelo (Class of 2016)