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Seminars

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News, Seminars
October 15, 2019

This morning we kicked off the first session of our Young Playwrights seminar series, sponsored by Baltimore Center Stage. The Young Playwrights Festival is a yearly event hosted by Center Stage in which hundreds of students grades K-12 write and submit a 10-minute play for review. Finalists whose plays are chosen get to revise their plays with a playwright mentor, and the plays are performed professionally. This year, the theme that the student plays must include is “Seize the Day”. The plays must also incorporate a ball, a wall, and a fall. These criteria may be incorporated literally or metaphorically into the story/props.  As participants in the Young Playwrights seminar, TCS students will be reading their scripts out loud at the end of the seminar series in addition to submitting their work to the competition. To prepare the TCS students to read and submit their original plays, our instructor Parker Matthews will lead 9 seminar sessions focusing on creative writing, self expression, and storytelling. Using a combination of acting exercises and lectures/brainstorming activities, Mr. Parker will teach the students about the elements of a good play to help them get started writing their own. Mr. Parker, originally from Oregon, is a teacher, actor, storyteller, and mime. His training is very physically engaged and he will be incorporating many physical activities into the seminar classes.  The class today started with a gesture game to learn names. The students went around a circle saying their name in combination with a gesture, and the rest of the students would copy...

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News, Seminars
September 27, 2019

Imani Yasin has made a career of working with students in a mentoring capacity. She first became acquainted with TCS when she was working with the mentoring program Sisters Circle as their High School Programs Coordinator. Imani has been a sponsor for students in the school for 2 years now and her niece also attended TCS. This spring Imani was awarded as a “Woman to Watch” by the Baltimore Philomathians. Imani is also a local hip hop artist when she isn’t doing amazing work with youth. Imani has led a Conversation With at TCS before, focusing on her music and career. Today, she came back to share her experience traveling in South Africa and Mozambique over the summer. Ronan observes two rings that Imani bought at a market in South Africa. In early summer, Imani co-lead a study abroad program for high school students through the group called The Experiment in International Living. The program aims to teach the students about leadership, human rights, peace, and politics. They embed themselves in the local communities, learn about the culture and unlearn stereotypes.  Because the majority of the program was in various South African cities, a major learning experience for Imani and the students focused on the history of Apartheid. Unlike American segregation which split people by white and not-white, South African Apartheid split people into multiple categories based on the lightness and darkness of their skin.  Imani shows a video of a market in Mozambique. As a part of the program, Imani got to experience a diverse range of ways of life...

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News, Seminars
September 18, 2019

What better way to start learning a new topic than a hands-on example? With the Freshman Physical Science class starting a new unit on density, the Johns Hopkins CSI volunteers led a lab to demonstrate the concept. Ms. Rebecca explains, “This is a measurement that communicates how much mass is in an amount of space (or volume). Density is what makes oil float on top of water, or ice cubes float in water”.  In this lab, students mixed sugar with water at different concentrations of sugar. Sugar adds mass to the water, so each mixture has a different density. To show each density visually, CSI gave the students food dye to color each sugar water mixture. Then, the students poured each mixture into one graduated cylinder. The mixtures with the highest density slid to the bottom, and the mixtures with the lowest density stayed at the top. This creates a rainbow of liquid mixtures and demonstrates density in a physical way.  Experiments are the best way to understand concepts, because it takes the abstract and makes it real. We are grateful to the CSI volunteers for starting this unit with our Physical Science class! ...

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News, Seminars
September 6, 2019

Those familiar with the TCS program know that Fridays are a time for writing and discussion. To kick off the first Friday of the year the Board of Trustees prepared lunch and led a conversation with the students. This important event is traditionally the first of the Conversation With series. It is a time for the Board to get to know the students, and for the students to learn more about how the Board functions and how they influence the school.  As always, the students asked some thought-provoking questions. They discussed what meetings are like and what happens when people have conflicting ideas, and what the Board does about tough decisions. The Board emphasized that they come to a consensus for every decision, and they do so by talking about it thoroughly. There is never much disagreement because each member of the Board approaches decisions through the framework of doing what is best for the school. The biggest responsibility that the Board has, they said, is ensuring that the school is here in the future. Mr. Tom added, “You made a commitment when you walked in the door to graduate, and we have to see that through”.  At the end of the discussion, Ed Gavin reminded the students that the Board is there to hear any concerns people might have. Students and families may write a letter to the Board, confidentially if need be, to bring up an issue. Although we try to resolve conflicts on a smaller level, it is important to know that the Board...

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News, Seminars
May 30, 2019

Another school year comes to a close with one final Conversation With. Thanks to meteorologist Tony Pann, we will be entering the summer practicing the power of positivity. Mr. Tony believes that if you put the right thoughts out into the universe, the right things will happen. He says the power behind his success is visualizing what he wants before he acts on it. To Mr. Tony, the steps to doing anything should be to be, then do, then have. Positive thinking, according to Mr. Tony, increases your probability of achieving your goals. Of course to a meteorologist, probability is everything. Going around the room, he asked each student to state a goal they have, then to close their eyes and visualize it happening. “Carry that feeling with you always,” he told the students. Mr. Tony also invited a few students to the front of the class to practice their public speaking. It doesn’t matter if you are afraid to talk in front of groups, he says, as long as you can act like you are comfortable. The students demonstrated an industry secret, holding something in your hand like a pen or clicker as a crutch to focus your nervous energy while speaking. It’s okay to take a deep breath and pause while speaking, Mr. Tony taught, and always turn your doubtful thoughts into positive ones. So, going into this summer, remember to always visualize success in everything you do! ...

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News, Seminars
May 28, 2019

"Honor your own curiosity" is the message of the day from Conversation With speaker Aaron Henkin, a radio producer for WYPR. His current project, “Out of the Blocks”, is a program that goes block by block to different Baltimore neighborhoods, allowing the residents to tell their stories. Mr. Aaron started the discussion by playing a clip of the show as an example. He explained that he wants to show what types of people you can meet when you show up “with the radical agenda of having no agenda”. He said that you can often find a more nuanced story if you let people talk about the issues they care about. “Everyone I meet is the teacher of the day,” said Mr. Aaron. The factor that drove him to making content for radio and podcasts is is passion for discovering stories he didn’t know existed. He got tired of hearing the same stories to the same ways, over and over again. Mr. Aaron said that although they started with the most marginalized of blocks to showcase, he quickly realized that each block is like a tile in the mosaic that is Baltimore City; now they have gone to many diverse neighborhoods to tell their stories. The discussion culminated in an activity with the students. Paired off, they each took a card that posed a question. The students used the question as a starting point for a mini interview. The point of the exercise was to practice active listening and to demonstrate the world of questions that open...

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News, Seminars
May 23, 2019

With the end of the school year sadly just around the corner, our creative writing seminar wrapped up today with students reading reflections on the year. The reflections ranged from funny to touching, though every student expressed their deep gratitude for the opportunity that TCS has given them and the family they have formed here this year. The creative writing seminar has run every week each year for close to 15 years under the leadership of Mr. Don Riesett, veteran of the advertising industry. Mr. Don has had work in several creative writing publications and we are very grateful he shares his stories and expertise with us. See you next year, Mr. Don! [gallery size="large" ids="32335,32336,32339,32338,32340,32337,32341,32342,32343,32345,32344,32346,32347,32348"]...

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News, Seminars
May 22, 2019

That’s a wrap! For the past month, the students have been practicing their video production skills under the guidance of industry pros. Voice actor Renee Beale and news consultant Jamie McIntyre have been very generous to share their talents with us over the course of this seminar. It has been a long-standing tradition here at TCS for the students to do a weekly news report on both world news and school news. The goal of the four On Camera classes has been to give the students new tools and skills to improve their newscasts in professional, creative ways. Renee and Jamie taught both on-camera and behind-the-scenes skills, from vocal techniques to lighting and using tele/audio prompters. The middle lessons focused on maintaining eye contact and clear vocals while using teleprompting and audio prompting, with one exercise where the students went outside to practice field reporting. For the final lesson, Renee and Jamie observed our newscasting setup and gave feedback on how to improve the technical side. Finally, Jamie gave a demo on video editing, showing how you can use free software to create a professional-qualityvideo. The students are so excited to put these new skills to work not only in the newscasts, but also for presentations in the daily curriculum. We hope we can have Renee and Jamie back next year!   ...

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News, Seminars
May 17, 2019

Continuing our hands-on study of local government this month, the students had the opportunity to speak with Delegate Maggie McIntosh of the 43rd district. Delegate McIntosh has served in the State House of Delegates since 1992. As the previous chair of the Environmental Matters Committee and the current chair of the Appropriations Committee, Delegate McIntosh was also the first woman in Maryland to be House Majority Leader. The students had the opportunity to ask Delegate McIntosh about a variety of topics from environmental concerns to the U.S. President, as well as current events such as the Johns Hopkins police force, the Alabama abortion bill, and the new Baltimore Mayor Jack Young. Delegate McIntosh had a background in education before becoming involved in politics, and she spent some time discussing education policy as well. Later, the students reflected on the conversation. “I liked how she talked about her honest opinion on situations. She even made me rethink my position on some things. I think that she is deep rooted in her community and that she had changed a lot in our Community,” said Tyleiah. Salma said, “I was never into local politics and now I can teach others so they can expand their views as well. Since she’s the one that is going to be making decisions for us all it was great seeing her points in these types of topics that was brought up.” Claude thought that “she has such a deep understanding of government and politics that she knows what she says. To me, she does...

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News, Seminars
May 15, 2019

Dr. George Delahunty, retired Lilian Welsh Professor of Biology at Goucher College, led class today with our biology students.  The students have been learning about the endocrine system this week. Dr. Delahunty’s professional research focuses on physiology and endocrinology. Dr. Delahunty has taught many years of classes on endocrinology, and was able to answer a variety of questions from the students such as the effect of steroids on athletes. Thank you, Dr. Delahunty, for giving the students the opportunity to learn from an expert! ...

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