April 25, 2012
Dear Families,
Today the Middle School and campus in general is very quiet: the sixth graders are in San Francisco
visiting the Asian Art Museum, and the Fifth Graders are off to the Marin Headlands.
Today from 3:15 to 5:15 the Middle School faculty will be participating in a seminar with Gina Biegel,
author of The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens: Mindfulness Skills to Help You Deal with Stress.
Ms. Biegel is working with us to help incorporate Gateway’s recent work on Mindfulness in a way that
is age-appropriate for teenagers; this is the second of her two meetings with our faculty. We look
forward to learning more about how to use these stress-reduction techniques with our middle
schoolers.
We encourage you to check our faculty web pages every month for class-by-class curricular updates,
and hope you enjoy the rest of your week!
Advisory
The sixth graders were off campus during today’s advisory period, and activities varied across the
seventh- and eighth-grade advisories. Some were focused on our final character education theme,
“Freedom and Democracy.” Sherri and Percy’s seventh-grade advisory group talked about our first
amendment rights, and began reading Ray Bradbury’s classic novel of censorship, Fahrenheit 451.
Activities and Announcements
Student Government
• There is a mandatory meeting for all 6/7th graders who want to run for Student Council officers’
positions this Friday, April 27 at 12:30 in the library. The current SC officers need to attend
also, so that they can share their experiences with prospective candidates.
Shakespeare to Go Performance at Gateway on Wednesday, May 2nd
On Wednesday, May 2nd during our Advisory period, UCSC’s Shakespeare to Go will be performing a
50-minute version of Twelfth Nigh for our Middle School. This is one of the plays that will be
performed this summer at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and we will also have the opportunity to attend that
play as an entire Middle School this August (stay tuned for more details). This is part of our initiative
to incorporate Shakespeare across the entire Middle School Humanities curriculum: the sixth graders
read the Sonnets; the seventh graders read a comedy (A Midsummer Night’s Dream); and the eighth
graders read a tragedy (Romeo and Juliet).
2
Catalina and D.C. Info. Meeting, Wednesday, May 2nd
Johaan, Sherri, and Meg will be holding a combined info. meeting for seventh-grade families
on Wednesday, May 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. in the West Cliff room. We’ll be discussing planning for
the upcoming trip to Catalina, and planning for next year’s trip to Washington D.C. The
meeting will conclude between 8:00 or 8:30.
After-School Sports Update:
Boys Volleyball had their first match at Good Shepherd this Monday. While they came out
very strong in winning the first game, the Rams eventually came back to take the win in the
second and third games. The boys will be back in action this Thursday against Kirby, with the
match being playing at the cavernous Mt. Hermon gym. Don’t forget to put their Blue/Gold
match on your calendars against Spring
Hill on the sand at Main Beach on
Thursday, May 24th at 4PM.
All Girls Volleyball players need to
return their jerseys to their coach or to
Johaan in the 7th Humanities classroom.
Those that don’t do so will be billed.
Upcoming dates:
5th-8th Boys Volleyball:
Wednesday, 4/25 Practice, 3:30-5PM
Thursday, 4/26 @ Kirby (Mt.
Hermon), 4:15PM
Monday, 4/30 Practice, 3:30-5PM
Tuesday, 5/1 @ Wavecrest
(Aptos Jr. High), 4PM
Wednesday, 5/2 Practice, 3:30-5PM
GO SHARKS!