WCA

Becky and Cat

It’s Play Week at Dorothy’s school and since she has a part, it’s a busy time for her and the rest of the cast and crew. Starting today, they have their practices in the Olney Theatre, where the play will be performed on Friday and Saturday. In this picture, Becky (our fearless director) and Cat relax over dinner after running through the entire play. After dinner, they went through Act 2 again. At this point in the process, it’s usually a nail-biting experience, as it doesn’t seem possible that things will come together in time. This year, things seem to be going pretty well and they are, perhaps, a bit ahead of where they are most years. Much less hectic.

Collyn and Her Class

It’s that time of year again. One of my very favorite days of the year. It’s the day I visit the second grade class and demonstrate a few simple machines. You remember those, right? Levers, pulleys, inclined planes? Yes. For the previous two visits, see Monday, April 16, 2012 and Wednesday, March 13, 2013.

As you probably know by now, if you have been following my posts for any length of time, the highlight of the day, by far, is the opportunity the second grade students have to pick up their teacher. She’s not exactly heavy to begin with. But second graders are not really big enough to pick her up, or certainly not easily, anyway. With the strength multiplying “magic” of pulleys (and a stout rope), it takes only 20% of her weight to lift her off the ground.

Thanks you, Collyn, for letting me have such fun with your class. You’re a real sport.

Oh, and by the way, happy anniversary, Collyn and Keith!

Joseph and Justin

There was a banquet, award ceremony, and dance this evening at the school. During the award ceremony, the two emcees, Joseph and Justin, performed for the audience. While Justin played the piano, Joseph did an interpretive dance. At least that’s what they called it. I won’t comment on what I think they were interpreting. They were actually quite funny and a good time was had by most.

My Photo Table

As I think I mentioned, I had a vendor table at the WCA Christmas Bazaar today. It’s something I look forward to every year and I had a great time. Of course, many of the people that I saw are old friends but I usually meet a few new people or get to know some that I’ve only just met recently. I sold a fair number of cards and prints and enjoyed all the visiting. Thank you to everyone who stopped by. Dorothy took this picture of me, so I could show you my display. Nothing fancy, of course, because I’m not really a fancy person.

Ravi Zacharias

This evening I took Dorothy and four of her classmates to Johns Hopkins University to hear Ravi Zacharias speak. For those not familiar with the name, Dr. Zacharias is a Christian apologist and defender of traditional evangelicalism. Rather than simply copy his bio here, I’ll link to it on the RZIM web site. He was speaking this evening on the topic of “The Problem of Suffering and the Goodness of God.” We got there about a half hour before the program started and were fortunate to get seats, much less seats all together. It was a good talk and worth the effort. Of course, you can also hear him online or on the radio without driving to Baltimore. Still, it’s nice once in a while to actually see and hear people speak in person.

Peace, Karol, Maggie, Olivia, and Dorothy

The annual WCA Banquet was this evening and we had a great time visiting with friends. Dorothy played piano and provided vocal accompanyment (along with Peace, Karol, and Maggie) for Olivia who did a great job singing for us. One thing that’s difficult when Dorothy is performing is that I want to get both still photographs, because that’s what I do, and video, because a recording is so nice. I can’t do both at the same time. Well, I can take a still photo while the video is recording but it will drop about a second from the video, which is annoying. I could also use frames from the video as still images. In this case, I took the photograph as they are just about to start playing and then switched over to video quickly and recorded the song.

Dorothy and Nicole

The school science department has a fundraiser each year at Cheeburger Cheeburger in Olney. Naturally, I took a few pictures, including this one of Dorothy and Nicole. My wide angle lens does funny things with heads when they are near the edges of pictures but this one isn’t as noticeably distorted as some. Naturally, a good time was had by all. My peanut butter and Heath bar milkshake was awesome (as always).

First Day of School, First Grade (2002)

First Day of School, Twelfth Grade (2013)

As Dorothy moves into her senior year of high school, this will be a year of lasts. Today was her last first day of school. She does plan to go to college, but that’s different. Eleven years ago I took the picture on the left, as Dorothy started first grade at the Fourth Presbyterian School. On the right is from today, starting her senior year at Washington Christian Academy. Quite a change in such a short time.

WCA Class of 2013

Our second graduation of the day was at Dorothy’s school, Washington Christian Academy. Because it’s a relatively small school, and because Dorothy is only one year behind these folks, we know most of the graduating class. Rather than post a picture of any one or even any small group of them, I figure I should post something with everyone in it, even if you cannot see their faces. For those of you who follow me via Facebook, I’ll be posting a few pictures there when I get the chance, but for now, here’s a celebratory moment.

Congratulations to Edna, Danielle, Michelle, Michael, Jeff, Reed, Carrie, Jessica, Greg, Rebekah, Libby, Abigail, Erin, Hannah, Madison, Rachael, Lidia, Jake, Lauren, Alex, Connor, Nick, Joe, Jason, Lauren, Dillon, Toni, Amanda, Tyler, Kyle, and Justin.

Collyn’s Second Grade Class

Every year the second grade class at our school learns about immigration in the early part of the 20th century. The culmination of their lessons on this is their half-day Ellis Island Experience. They spend most of the morning in a hot, dark, and cramped ship (made of desks in their classroom with the heat turned on). There are various activities during that time but I’m not a part of that so don’t know exactly what. Each student has been given an identity and the history of an immigrant. They are dressed for their roles and have bags with all their earthly belongings.

At about 11:00 AM they arrive at “Ellis Island” and have to face first the medical inspector and then the immigration officer (that’s me). If they are found well enough by the medical inspector and if everything else is in order, they are allowed to enter the united states. In this case the quota for immigrants from Ireland had already been reached and I had to send the Flanagan family home to Ireland. The three boys in the class were not happy about not being able to enter America and they learned first hand why Ellis Island is sometimes known as the Island of Tears.

This photo is the class (including the boys) back on the boat after they were all done, “coming to america.”

Justin, Judah, Maggie, Michelle, Dorothy, and Lee

I little short of two weeks ago, the Music Guild at school performed at an event at the school. Dorothy sang three songs in that performance. The first two were sung solo but the third as as part of a group. They sang The Misty Mountain Song from The Hobbit.

The group was asked to sing it again this evening at the middle school band concert, as representatives of the Music Guild. Six of the seven from their first performance were there and are in today’s photograph. From left they are Justin, Judah, Maggie, Michelle, Dorothy, and Lee.

They were practicing in the stairwell and the might have done better to have the audience come into the stairwell to hear them perform. The reverberations from the hard masonry walls produced a very impressive sound. I recorded them once in the stairs and as well as their performance in the auditorium. I think the former was better than the later.

I was listening to various version of the song on YouTube and can recommend this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OiYDUEu3i8.

Ready For the Prom

Dorothy’s school prom was this evening and she was part of a group that went together. Because we have a nice wood in our neighborhood, we decided to go take some pictures there. This is one of a couple bridges we went over and I took quite a few pictures of the kids on and under it. This picture in particular is a favorite of mine, mostly because of the hijinks of Joseph, who is on the left, and also in the middle, and finally again on the right. Fun times.

From left to right: Joseph, Cat, Michelle, Dorothy, Porter, Joseph, Hannah, Maggie, Elijah, and Joseph.

Cast Photo

We spent the better part of the day at the Olney Theatre today, leaving home at about 11:00 AM and not getting home again after the cast party until after midnight. The two performances of The Princess Who Had No Name, by Brian Taylor, went very well and without any drama. Well, there was drama, but only the intended drama.

This is the cast and a nicer bunch of kids would be hard to find. Sure, they can be loud and the can certainly be silly. All in all, I enjoyed my afternoon with them. That’s not to say (1,600+ photos later) I wasn’t glad when it was over.

WCA Play Practice

The WCA play is this Friday and Saturday. This week they are practicing at the theatre all week so I came a little early to pick up Dorothy. This is the cast and crew gathered on the stage for some general instruction and comments before they called it a day.

I’m posting this a bit late, after the performances have actually happened, so I won’t bother to invite you to the show. If you came, you know how much fun it was. If you didn’t, you’ll want to plan on being there next year for whatever they get up to.

Jaynna Gives Collyn a Lift

It was my day to come visit the second grade today with a few simple machines. We started off with a little teeter-totter and I showed them how, by moving the fulcrum closer to one end, you can multiply the force supplied. One of the second graders was able to life me off of the ground. Then they each pulled a nail out of a board with a big crow bar. They agreed that it was a lot easier than trying to pull them out by hand. We talked about the threads on a screw and I showed them how threads can be cut but I’m not sure how much they got out of that part. We might skip that next year in favor of an inclined plane (a.k.a. a ramp) and a wedge.

The most fun, as always, was when the students hoisted their teacher up into the air using a block and tackle (pulleys and a rope). A few of them were close to being too light even with their weight being multiplied, but they were all able to get her up to about head height. After they were done, I handed the rope to Collyn and she pulled herself up into the ceiling, which they thought was wonderful. Hopefully they won’t forget the day they picked up their teacher.

Collyn reminded me of the quote of the day, when Jaynna said, “I can’t wait to grow up and be a teacher so that I can do this too!” Perfect.

No teachers were harmed in the making of this photograph.

Dorothy and Friends

I was at the school today to set up for a demo in second grade tomorrow. Dorothy had play practice until 5:00 so I went to take a few pictures of that and then was out in the hall taking pictures of some of the students as they waited for a part of they play in which they were needed. This is, from left to right, Michael, Lauren, Hannah, Dorothy, Garrett, Abigail, Rachael, and Justin. Note that Garret has Abigail on his back and then Rachel on Abigail’s back.

Collyn and Keith

I freely admit that I have a lot of favorite people. That’s because I know so many wonderful folks that I can’t leave many off the list. Cathy and I were at the school for the benefit auction this evening and as you would expect I took one or two pictures. I got a few that are pretty good but looking through them with Cathy and Dorothy it was unanimous that this was the best. What a cute couple they are. It’s hard to believe it’s already been nearly three years since they got married. I’m glad to say that they are still one of the cutest couples around.

Anna, Issy, Ashley, Dorothy, and Erin

Every year we have a dance for the parents and other adults affiliated with the school. Dances are not really our thing but it is a fund raiser for the junior class and Dorothy is a junior this year. Fred Astaire I’m not but for those interested, Cathy and I did dance. I took pictures, as well. It’s always hard to pick one picture from an evening like this. Some of the best pictures are often of people I don’t know that well. This one is nice. It’s Dorothy and five of her classmates.

X-Day Introduction to Programming

At WCA they have something they call X-Day. It is one day in the third quarter where classes of various kinds are offered. These are things not generally available as part of their regular curriculum but that some students might find interesting. This year, there were classes in cooking, ballroom dancing, cake decorating, and making digital collages. There was a boot camp that was quite popular. Groups of students went to Luray Caverns, the Gettysburg Battlefield, and hiked the Billy Goat Trail below Great Falls. One group went to a local hospital and had literal front row seats (standing, actually) to various surgical procedures from knee to cardiac. I was asked if I could teach an introductory course in computer programming and had twelve students sign up.

The day went pretty well. I introduced programming at a very basic level, talking about concepts common to all languages including variables, operators, and control structures. We talked about syntax and how it varies from language to language. The students wrote some short programs to get a feel for how things work. None of them are ready to go to work as programmers at this point but they left with a decent foundation on which to build, if they so desire. And I had a fun time getting to know a few (potential) future computer scientists.

Maggie and Hannah

Marilyn with Sky

Today was the Christmas bazaar at Dorothy’s school. I didn’t spend a lot of time taking pictures because I had a table and was selling them, instead. I’ve done that before and had quite varied success. I’d have to go back and check but I think this was my best year so far. That was due at least partly to my excellent location (thanks, Cathy).

Over the course of the last few weeks I went through all the pictures I’ve taken in the last year or so and pulled out some that I thought people would like. I made cards and matted 5×7 inch prints of them. If anyone wants an 8×10, naturally I can do that. I still had cards and matted 5×7 and 8×10 inch prints of older pictures, of course. I had questions from two different people about making larger prints of a few, so you never know.

The first of these, Maggie and Hannah horsing around, was taken from behind my table. Cathy manned the booth for a little while to let me get out and take a few pictures. That’s when I got the second of them, of Marilyn, not exactly horsing around, but…

I also took a couple pictures of Maggie (from the first picture) with Marilyn’s palomino, named Diamond. I’ll post one of those along with a few other pictures from the day on Facebook.

National Honor Society Inductees

Dorothy was one of ten students inducted into the National Honor Society today. Naturally we were proud of her. Here is a picture of all ten with the one returning student who was inducted last year. Well done, ladies.

Dorothy

The Music Guild performed the songs from their recently released CD this evening. That includes Dorothy playing and singing her song, Voices in the Tempest, with Lizzie, Carrie, and Ben singing harmony, Paul and Lexi on guitar and Alex on Drums. They did a wonderful job and Dorothy sounded as good as you’d expect me to say she did anyway. I recorded all the songs from the event and took a bunch of pictures, as well. This one of Dorothy was taken during practice. Sadly, I can’t record video and take stills at the same time.

Kayte Grace

WCA alumna Kayte Grace came with her band to give us a concert at the school. I was particularly pleased because Dorothy was roped (I mean encouraged) into being one of the opening acts. She sang a song she wrote and, at the risk of sounding like the stereotypical dad, I think she did a pretty darn good job. Happily I recorded Dorothy but she’d kill me if I posted that here but fear not, because you get a picture of the lovely and extremely talented Kayte Grace. If you’d like to hear her music, you can start at http://www.kaytegracemusic.com/. Her music is also available on iTunes and Amazon.