Over the winter break, the school hosted a two-day basketball tournament—the Springside Second Annual Holiday Tournament—and won it! We defeated Imhotep Charter in the semi-finals 53-33 and then beat Hallahan in the championship game 51-32. Courtney Caputo '10 and Colleen Caldwell '10 were named to the All-Tournament Team and Katie Rutan '09 was named the tournament MVP. Congratulations to the entire team!

A delegation of students from Springside and CHA traveled to New Orleans for the annual three-day Student Diversity Leadership Conference in December. Led by a diverse team of adult and peer facilitators, participants developed skills to take back to their schools—effective cross-cultural communication skills, effective strategies for social justice, and learn networking principles and strategies. Says a Springside leader, “The SDLC has allowed me to meet people from different religions, races, social economic statuses, and sexual orientations...  At SDLC I was a witness to friendship, infinite love, sisterhood, brotherhood, and support.”  

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Players for a superb production of The Sound of Music! Click here for the story posted on Philly.com...  Click here for a photo gallery...

Springside and Chestnut Hill Academy high school and middle school orchestra members enjoyed a private recital by the Fairmount String Quartet, a Philly favorite that has been performing in the area since 1984. Then, in an about face, select members of the orchestra performed for the quartet and received helpful insight and critique, similar to that of a master class.

The coordinate program of Springside and CHA had 23 students who earned AP Scholar Awards from the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on Advanced Placement exams. Students took their AP exams in May 2008 after completing challenging college-level courses. There are several levels of achievement for which our students’ were recognized. (The bulk of the students are now in college, hence the small number featured in the photo.) Read more...

As beloved as the all-school assembly featuring “Shoo, Turkey, Shoo” is, most Springside girls will also fondly remember the Lower School tradition of packaging Thanksgiving baskets for St. Vincent’s Food Cupboard. This year 25 turkeys and 32 well-provisioned, artfully decorated baskets were delivered by Lower School students, along with 18 turkeys and 23 filled baskets from Middle School. In addition, a number of student-sponsored drives have been streamlined into “Holiday-Drive-a-Thon 2008,” which will run through December 19. Click here to see the “wish lists” of the many organizations included in this year’s drive.

Springside’s Outstanding Young Alumna Jennifer Marlowe ’89, returned to Springside recently to screen her work-in-progress documentary, Rebuilding Hope. She was also able to share her knowledge as an indie filmmaker with ViDCAST students and her firsthand experience in war-torn countries with Upper School students in The Politics of Violence class. Read more about her film...

Eight CHASS students were recently recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. National Merit Commended students are Katherine Roberts, Donald Leatherwood, Caroline Phillips, Zoe Greenberg, Kelsey Trueblood, and Sam Bissell; National Merit Semifinalists are Erica Swan and Alex Yang.  Semifinalists represent less than 1% of the 1.4 million students who entered the 2008 National Merit Program by taking the 2007 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and Commended students represent about 2% of students taking the 2007 test. Swan and Yang will have the opportunity to continue on in the National Merit Scholarship process and be considered for merit scholarship awards in the Finalist level of the competition.

____________________________________________________

The entire school formed a “living” pink ribbon in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Students also sold charm bracelets, Rock the Pink T-shirts, pins, and pink hair extensions, compliments of the Noel Sy Salon in Bala Cynwyd. The event, organized by Springside’s athletic trainer Aimee Keough, raised $3,500 for the Estée Lauder’s Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Also, congratulations to Pre-K teacher Stephanie Moore and parent BJ Zellers who walked in the 2008 Philadelphia Breast Cancer 3-Day, sponsored by the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
 

Forty-seven percent of Springside’s eighth grade and 43% of the seventh grade (last spring) were identified by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth as eligible for taking the SAT. The Talent Search identifies, assesses, and/or recognizes students with exceptional mathematical and/or verbal reasoning abilities. In order to be eligible, students had to score 95% or better amongst those who took the ERB tests (or equivalent) nationwide. The qualifiers from Springside are pictured here.

Over 100 faculty—laptops in hand—came to Springside this week for the first session of Will Richardson’s workshop called “Personal Learning Practice (PLP).” Spearheaded by Springside’s technology chair Pete DiDonato, Richardson examines with educators new ways to use technology for 21st century learners. Teams from over 20 area schools explored the transformative potential of social web tools to build learning communities. Will Richardson, an internationally respected author, speaker, and blogger, as well as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University, is the program facilitator for this cutting-edge program, which is launching this fall in the Philadelphia area. Read more...

Energized by a visit from Dr. Chris Dede (Chair, Learning Technologies, Harvard University) on the topic of "Reaching and Teaching our Neomillennial Students," Springside students and faculty are exploding conventional paradigms to rethink what education means in the 21st century. In so doing, innovation, creativity, collaboration, and communication are paramount. These key elements are at the heart of the many initiatives that position the school as a leader: Read more...

It has also become clear that lifelong learning is paramount, and Springside seized the summer as an opportunity to grow our educational practice:

• 50+ faculty were awarded Technology Grants in excess of $10,000 to lead or take part in over 1,600 hours of professional development, studying topics like eFolios, TeleCollaborative Learning, and Social Networking to Support Learning. Read more...
• Faculty presented and attended international conferences at MIT, the National Education Computing Conference, and Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference.
• Jenn Vermillion, our Director of Educational Technology, led an online masters program for K-12 educators at the University of Connecticut.
• The school launched a faculty laptop program to empower teachers along with our 75 SMART classrooms and wireless campus.
• Added 120 new student laptops with cutting-edge software.
• Bolstered our ViDCAST Studio with additional cutting-edge technology
• Re-created spaces to reflect how students learn

Read about all of our summer initiatives...

Plans for the 2008-09 school year include:

• Beginning a 1:1 laptop program for students.
• Continuing our commitment to professional development alongside educational futurist Ian Jukes.
• Leading and participating in the Will Richardson Personal Learning Practiceprogram for 100+ faculty from over 20 schools. Springside is the host school for this event and Director of Technology Pete DiDonato is serving as a program fellow.
• Launching Student Tech Core (iSite) program that will empower girls to work with faculty to provide innovative ideas for teaching and learning. Much of this work will take place in our new Laptop Lounge.
• Creating a Springside Social Network on Ning.com along with presence on YouTube and SchoolTube.
• Continuing to work to develop online and blended courses.
• Partnering with schools internationally as part of the iEARN project to help solve global problems.

Springside is now the Philadelphia area’s Satellite Workshop Center in Molecular Biology as part of the Princeton University Outreach Program. Springside has a long history of academic excellence and is a leader in science education. Fall and spring four-day workshops for Philadelphia-area science teachers will be taught by Head of Science Department Scott Stein, along with Springside alumna Virginia Pearson, Class of 1964, Research Collaborator at the Smithsonian Institution Genetics Program and Project Coordinator Elephant Crittercam with National Geographic Society. Topics will include DNA extraction, DNA fingerprinting, PCR, genetic engineering, and bioinformatics. Download flier.

Filming from the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, Springside’s ViDCAST Studio was home to a Music Video Production workshop this summer that caught the eye of the 10! Show’s reporter Tim Furlong. Students were featured live demonstrating their skills with video cameras, lighting instruments, microphones, and the iLife suite (iMovie, Garageband, iDVD, iPhoto). Read more about the ViDCAST Studio.

Springside is the first school in the state to receive "Bird Habitat" recognition from Audubon PA. Specifically, we were given this status in recognition of our Traffic Circle Rain Garden, the planting by the bird blind, the work around the Middle School loop to attract birds, the creation of a pond environment for insects, and the Lower School butterfly garden. Steven Saffier and Bob Wallis of Audubon Pennsylvania were on deck to install the sign that reads "Audubon recognizes that the people who care for this property pledge to provide healthy habitat that supports birds, butterflies and other wildlife."

With a nod to National Drinking Water Week, the Schuylkill Action Network presented their “Source Water Protection Awards” to three schools and the Philadelphia Water Department for developing environmental and educational projects that help to protect sources of drinking water in the Schuylkill River Watershed. Springside’s entire sixth grade was honored at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center! Students Leah Beight and Michaela Reitano gave the class response, talking about their rain garden project, the native plants they incorporated, and its impact on stormwater runoff. During an interview with a WHYY reporter the girls were able to share their passion for the environment and the many things their class has done over the years. Click here to enjoy a slide show from the event.