Trick or Treating Time

Jenny's Daytime Costume

Don't worry, all--Jenny is not really pregnant! She's dressed up as the super-cute and witty movie character Juno. What a (creepily) convincing costume! =)

Juliana and Cheyenne on Halloween Morning

We'll keep posting pics throughout the day, because we know that the costumes for the dance tonight will be even more elaborate, but we thought this was a nice way to wish you all a Happy Halloween!

The 2008-2009 Yearbook Cover Design

The Barn was well-represented in the contest to design the cover for the yearbook this year...I think 75% of the entries were from Barnies. =) The designs were all really amazing, and we kind of wish more than one could have won, but we were still pretty thrilled that when the CSW votes were tallied, our very own Jin had been selected as the winning designer. We can't wait to see her artwork on the cover later this year! Congrats, Jin!

Congrats to our Varsity Girls Soccer Team!

Blen, and the rest of our girls' Varsity Soccer Team, will be heading to the league playoffs this afternoon. Good luck!

Kudos

This Sunday, Kudos went to:

• Cheyenne, Rada, and Juliana...you were all so GOOD in the Bathtub Plays!
• all the Barnies who made announcements or spoke up in the discussion assembly...Juliana, Jenny, Minami, Cheyenne, Rada...it was nice to hear your voices!
• to Helen, for doing my hair...I LOVE it!
• Cheyenne for having the most evil smile at the end of the play...ever!
• Jin...for not only designing the sweatshirt, but for spending six hours turning her design into print-ready art!
• Juliana for being the best bickering kid!
• all the Barnies in Fall Production! You guys were all amazing!
• Courtney, because you're awesome and we totally missed you this weekend!
• Rada, for being the coolest person from the future.
  

A few clips from the Bathtub Plays, starring Rada, Juliana, and Cheyenne!

Photos from the Bathtub Plays

This is Cheyenne in "Picnic on the Battlefield"

This is Cheyenne and Juliana in "The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey"

Rada as the "Phosphorescent Woman"

Cheyenne as stage manager/Statue of Liberty
Look closely: Juliana and Rada are there too!

Happy Birthday, Courtney!

Thursday was Courtney's 15th Birthday, and the Barnies wrote little birthday notes for her all over all the white boards in the dorm. AND Juliana and Jenny got up on stage in front of the whole school to say Happy Birthday at assembly! We celebrated at our dorm meeting on Tuesday night, so we could all sing to her at once.

This weekend, the fall production is running Thursday-Saturday, so Rada, Juliana, and Cheyenne have been SUPER busy. Michael and I will go tomorrow night, and we'll try to post some pics/videos. =)

Till then,

Melisa K.

Happy Birthday, JOFIA!!!

Jofia turned 18 today, and we celebrated with cupcakes and singing. =)

Barn Collage 2007-2008

This is last year's collage, but I thought I'd post it now so everyone remembers to collect pictures throughout the year for this year's collage!

Michael and Melisa's Pumpkin Carving Adventure

Michael carved the cat inside the pumpkin, and I carved the cutest monster ever, called Baxter. I was very upset to find that it probably won't last until Halloween...guess we carved them a little too early. We might have to carve them all over again!

Happy almost Halloween!
Melisa K.

Good luck, Jane!

This morning, Jane left super early to go take the TOEFL as part of her college application process. Kanae went last week...all of our international students will be required to take this test, along with the SAT, in order to complete their college applications. Juniors at CSW will be taking the PSAT this weekend. Good luck, girls!

Soccer Victory!

Yesterday afternoon, Jofia, Asha and Aneesia helped CSW's JV Soccer team triumph over Landmark. Go Team! (Sorry we don't have pictures.)

Dinner Duty

Every day during lunch, a team of 5-7 day students does lunch duty. At night, boarders participate in dinner duty, where they take turns washing and putting away dishes, sweeping, wiping down tables, and taking out trash. Last night, Jenny and Courtney were on dinner duty, and Courtney was brave enough to take on the industrial dishwasher during her very first dinner duty. =)

Happy Birthday, Juliana

Juliana's birthday was yesterday, and her mom brought in a great cake that Juliana shared with the Barn, amidst much singing and celebration for her Sweet 16. The cake was pretty sweet too.

Melisa and Michael Go Fishing

Melisa and Michael went fishing just a short walk from campus and caught 15 fish in one hour! It's hard to believe we're so close to Boston and there's still peaceful places to catch fish!

Important Messages from the Barn

Today Courtney, Jenny, and Emily spent some time making some cool art expressing the importance of voice and love. It's hanging in our common room now!

Courtney's Art

Courtney made an awesome stepstool in woodworking, but I haven't been able to get a picture of it yet!

Aneesia's Art

Aneesia had a whole bunch of well-developed photos in the art show, but taking pictures of pictures makes it hard to see how cool they are.

Kanae's 3-D Art

My picture doesn't really do it justice, because you can't get a good sense of the depth of this piece!

Jane's Art

Jane worked on these in her self-portrait class, and it's so impressive how she made a portrait out of tiny little pieces of paper she cut out!

Sarah in the Art Show

Katie in the Art Show

This is a really creepy but really awesome picture of Cheyenne that Katie did in her digital collage class.

Hyun Soo's Art from the Art Show

Jin's Winning Design

Kinda reminds me of Charlie's Angels. Which is fitting, since our Barn residents are bold, beautiful and brilliant!

Dorm Meeting Night

We had a very busy dorm meeting tonight, reviewing plans for the first mod break (which starts tomorrow night!). Some students will stay on campus, some have gone to a leadership camp in NY, and some will visit family and friends all throughout New England and beyond.

Juliana, Jenny, Courtney, Shari, Asha, Katie, Emily, and Briana have volunteered to brainstorm and put together a proposal of a few options for our dorm dinner. Every year, each of the four dorms plans to "host" a dorm dinner in the dining commons for the entire boarding community--and of course it is open to day students and faculty/staff as well. We work with the kitchen staff, and within a decorating budget, to carry out a theme in both food and decoration. Last year, the Barn hosted a brightly colored Caribbean dinner which was a big hit. Unofficially, we all (in the Barn) declared ourselves the winner of the best dorm dinner for 2008, and we hope to continue that tradition this year.

Each year, every dorm also designs their own dorm sweatshirt, which they wear with pride throughout the year (and beyond). Last, year the Barn started a new tradition to hold a contest among the students for the sweatshirt design. We have so many artistic students and we thought it would be a nice way to acknowledge and showcase their talents. Last year, Yvonne and Kanae worked together on the winning design. This year, we had many, many great entries, and we were especially excited to see new CSW students submit designs. As a result, we're sure to have a terrific design. Tonight we voted on the submissions, and this year's sweatshirt design winner was.....
....
....
...
JIN!!!

Congrats, Jin, and thanks to ALL of our fantastic girls who submitted really cool design ideas. We could start a whole Barnie sweatshirt line! =)

'nighty night from the Barn,
Melisa K.

PS: We will try to post the winning design once we get it digitized. =)

Photo Credit: Juliana

Juliana created this gorgeous picture in our YUM lab (a digital photo lab on campus), with a little help from her Barnie sisters Courtney and Jenny, of course. Keep smiling, girls!

Here's another of her creations, starring Cheyenne and Katie as well:

KUDOS!

This week, Kudos went to:

• Briana and Shari for being the best daughters ever
• Katie, for her great capacity for cheese!
• Alicia for letting us watch the "Heroes" premiere!
• Juliana and Cheyenne for creating Kudos and reading them each week.
• Melisa, Michael, Alicia, and Travis for supplying great dorm snacks!
• Kandice for her awesome sparkly sweatshirt
• Emily for being brave when she hurt her foot
• Juliana for being thoughtful and sensitive
• Courtney for being awesome!
• Whoever did the dishes--thanks!!
• Asha for lending me money at Six Flags--I promise to pay you back!
• Briana for making me smile and making my weekend just by being you.
• Awa, because she's still smiling at the the end of her first full weekend duty!

Dorm Elections

CSW really values student voice and leadership opportunities. We are one of the few schools in the country that elect students as voting members on our Board of Trustees. We have student members on our judicial committee, our advisory board, our curriculum committee, our activities committee, and our diversity committee, among other things. In the dorms, leadership opportunities go beyond the dorm leaders. Our very own Hyeon Jin was elected last year to serve as the moderator and head of our boarding life committee, which includes two elected representatives from each dorm and serves to improve our residential life program and policies. On Sunday, our dorm voted, and Rada and Cheyenne will be representing the Barn on Boarding Life this year. In addition, the Barn has its own judicial committee to deal with smaller-scale policy infractions within the dorm. This committee, called Dorm Board, will meet as necessary to hear the students' perspective and then decide on an appropriate consequence. This year, Dorm Board will consist of Hyeon Jin, Blen, and Minami, with Jane and Julia as alternates. Go Team!!

All School, All Souls Discussion

CSW students read All Souls, by Michael Patrick MacDonald, over the summer, and have been talking about it all week. Starting on Tuesday, students met in their small advisor groups. Yesterday, they met as entire classes (ie the entire 10th grade met together), and then the entire school came together in the theatre to talk about why CSW as a community chose this book to read, and what resonated most strongly for members of the community. There were strong reactions to the role of parenting in the book, to the code of silence, and to the issues surrounding race. We were very proud to see Cheyenne come to the microphone during assembly to share her thoughts with the filled auditorium.

The conversation didn't end with assembly, however. Many of the Barnies engaged in serious conversations during and after study hours, pondering inter-racial friendships, and the meaning of community, and the role of stereotypes and assumptions and broad generalizations. Today really showcased some of the benefits of CSW's educational philosophy, as the shared summer reading experience set off a ripple effect of thoughtful, intellectual conversation about topics that are very relevant to our students and our community as a whole. It was especially meaningful to hear murmurs of "What can we do to fix it?" around the community, and the dorm. It wasn't said with despair, but with earnestness. Let's hope this is one conversation that never ends...

The weekend is over...

The weekend was great. Other than minigolf, mall trips and movie/game nights, the Barnies did a lot of fun things by themselves!

-They got together in study groups to prepare for the evil cell bio test together (yay teamwork!)
-They set up a little nail salon in the lounge, experimenting with approximately 80 (!) nail polishes Emily had.
-Some of us had a busy weekend in the theatre, with a work day Saturday AND rehearsals on Sunday... Well at least we live on campus and the theatre is 3 minute walk away. :-)
-They ordered pizza that never came. (and pizza that did come!)
-They have been DDR-ing all Friday night/Saturday afternoon. (which is actually REALLY good exercise!)
-They did all their homework in between! (right?)

And now a fresh week is starting... It's going to be busy, with the summer reading discussions, assemblies, and the Six Flags trip this Sunday! But it will definitely be fun too. :-)

Go Barnies!

Rada

Kudos!

Each week the Barn residents accomplish great things, and take the time to perform random acts of kindness for others. Whenever one of us "catches" another Barnie doing such a thing, we make sure to take the time to acknowledge it by writing a Kudos Card, which is read out loud on Sunday evening before Super Clean. This week, kudos were given to:

Jin and Rada for organizing game night and movie night. You both are already helping the Barnies bond. Thanks for being excellent dorm leaders!

Rada, Cheyenne, and Juliana for getting cool parts in the fall production! We can't wait to see the plays!

Cheyenne for giving good advice (even though I did not take it)

Jin for helping me with my homework.

Cheyenne for doing pajama Monday!

Emily for going EVERYWHERE in her sleepers!

Alicia (and Travis) for being pregnant!

Rada for landing an awesome role in the fall production.

Cheyenne because she is awesome. =)

Briana for having awesome boots!

Jane Lin for being REALLY cool and an AWESOME artist.

Asha for always making me laugh.

Maddie for being freaking AWESOME and for knowing whatYogabbagabba is. =)

Hyeon Jin for being lab partner of the year!

Melisa for making awesome glass jewelry.

Courtney for making new freshman acquaintances at Project Adventure.

Cheyenne, Rada, and Juliana for having an awesome talk the other day.

Aneesia and Emily for using your math powers for good (by helping other Barnies with their math homework. Thanks!

Monster Mini Golf and Jack Nicholson

We had an exciting weekend in the Barn this week. On Friday, Ted (CSW English teacher) took a busload of CSW students to play Monster Mini-Golf, which was genius, considering the indoor course was unaffected by the rainy weather. Lit up by black lights, the creepy course is made more challenging by the dark and scary atmosphere! Pictured on the left, you'll see this had no effect on a triumphant Jenny! And Katie didn't let her boyfriend Pat (CSW day student) hold her back from playing a fierce game of air hockey. Once the students returned to the dorm, Jin hosted game night, which started with an hour of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), followed by an enthusiastic game of Outburst, which was won by the team that could quickly name ten states bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Saturday, students new to CSW went to Project Adventure, where they got to know each other as they did ropes work in smaller group settings throughout the day. Saturday night, Rada hosted Movie Night, and a large group of Barnies (and a few Alephians and day students) joined her for a riveting double feature. The Shining, starring a VERY creepy Jack Nicholson, had us all very jumpy by the time it was over. Luckily, Rada had chosen to end the night with heartwarming Juno, so we were all able to sleep without nightmares. (good call, Rada!)

Movie and Game nights were started at the initiative of our new dorm leaders, as a way to provide even more fun group activities on weekends, in addition to the school-run trips. This weekend, CSW ran planned trips to Harvard Square, the Natick mall and movie theater, and apple picking in addition to the mini-golf trip. Next weekend, students will head off to the nearest six flags amusement park!

Until next time,
Melisa K.

Leadership Assembly!

Yesterday morning, the Barn girls (along with the rest of the CSW community) participated in a leadership assembly given by Mike Weber. In 1993, Mike founded Great American Opportunities Leadership Institute with a focus of building student leaders through workshops and conferences. During the past 12 years, Mike has worked with schools and businesses from Maine to California, teaching about creativity, leadership, attitude management, and the power of change. At CSW, he gave an interactive workshop (there was juggling! of eggs! by students!) that taught 5 basic tenets of leadership:

1. Leadership is about actions and choices not about positions or titles
2. Leadership is a learned skill not an innate ability.
3. Leadership is about influence within an organization not just the tasks assigned.
4. Leadership is about the success of an organization not the glory of an individual.
5. Leadership is about vision for the future not the maintenance of the past.

When Barnies were asked what they thought of the assembly, they said it was: hilarious, interesting, and that it held their attention for the entire assembly period--which is saying something!

The assembly ended with a rememberence for 9/11 and those affected by the tragic events of that day.

Now, we're getting ready for a fun weekend. Jin is going to host a game night tonight, while Rada will host movie night tomorrow night. The newest members of the Barn Sisterhood will spend tomorrow at Project Adventure, bonding with other new members of the CSW community.

Until next time,
Melisa K.

Barnies Bond over Bumper Boats

It was a very exciting weekend for the Barnies and all of the CSW boarding students. It was the first of this year's three All-Boarders weekends, and all of the students who live on campus are required to participate. For this first weekend, the focus was on fun, games, and getting to know the people we share a home with for the better part of the year.

Friday night we went to Kimball Farms, where we started the evening off with heaping ice cream sundaes. Then it was off to play mini-golf, volleyball, and the most popular event of the evening--bumper boats! For the next few hours, our Barnies had a blast playing and chatting, and making surprising new friends in the greater boarding community. Also surprisingly, more people seemed to be getting wet on the mini-golf course than in the bumper boats. Mini-golf can be an extreme sport!

Most of Saturday was spent at Hale Reservation, on their ropes course and team-building brainteasers. With the boarders split into groups across dorms, they were asked to push their limits on high events such as the catwalk, a log suspended between trees 30 feet in the air that they were asked to cross. When not precariously balanced amidst the treetops, the rest of the group took turns working in belay teams, working the rope and pulley system ensuring the safety of those walking amongst the trees.


Saturday night was the eagerly anticipated annual fractured fairy tales event. A fractured fairy tale is a re-interpretation of a classic fairy tale set in the CSW community. The students are given a set of rules that must be included in their performance, such as requiring a dance number or including a reference to a person on a presidential ticket. The Barnies put on a spirited performance that made us proud, and our own Blen and Helen took home the prize for Best Narration. Unfortunately, the coveted winner's award eluded us as it went to the defending champions from the White Farm dormitory who took it home on a humorous, crowd-pleasing dance performance in their interpretation of Snow White. Great job, Barnies! We'll get them next year! Though the rain prevented our planned bonfire, the dorm parents all rallied to make S'mores in the school kitchen...mmmm..mmmm.

The weekend ended with the dorm leaders from each dorm coming together to plan and run a series of field day-like activities on Sunday. Dorm leaders are older students from each dorm who take on a leadership role in the dorm in order to help their fellow students connect and have a happier, healthier living environment. The favorite game on this day was a couple of spirited games of hide-and-seek tag across school grounds. After a controversial, late-game jail break in game one, and a hectic effort in game two, the Barn and White Farm emerged victorious (among just a bit of good-spirited controversy about their resourceful methods!) More importantly, all 80 students participated and laughed and had fresh-air fun!

Here's a slideshow of some of the other memorable moments from the weekend--enjoy!!


Good night from the Barn,
Michael K.

Growth and Exercise

The new school year is off to a great start, and all around CSW you can see signs of growth. Martha's Garden is growing the largest Hibiscus I've ever seen--they tower over the other flowers, keeping watch almost protectively. Similarly, the older students are watching out for the new CSW students, showing them the ropes and introducing them to the CSW culture, clubs, and community.

The first all-school assembly was held yesterday, and Jane, our head of school, gave a thought-provoking speech. All-school assemblies are a time when the whole school can have a shared experience, whether it is serious, silly, or simply a way to connect with each other. The new students were able to start to get a sense of the many clubs and activities going on around campus.

After school, students spent time with friends. Today, returning students took a walk to the local Dairy Joy (which will close soon for the season), taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. Other students caught up with old friends and made new ones, while still other students made time for a bit of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) in the cozy dorm common room. It's a great way to exercise! The new students in the Barn are quickly getting used to dorm policies surrounding internet and television usage, as well as sign-out and visitor rules. Tonight, they took advantage of the first Waltham Run...every Thursday night, boarding students may sign up to take a trip into town after study hours conclude. Once there, they are able to pick up groceries, snacks, and other necessities.

It's 11:00 now--time to say good-night to all the girls.

Good night from the Barn,
Melisa K.

The Dorm is Full! (and so are the drawers...and closets...)

Today, the rest of the 2008-2009 Barnies finally arrived...some as late as ten pm, after a 20-hour flight! But, finally, we are all together. As you can see in the picture to the left, some girls found that after getting their stuff out of storage, they had more clothes than they wanted in their closets. They decided they wanted to store some of the clothes they wouldn't need for a while, and they were very resourceful in sitting on the clothes while trying to use the vacuum to make the clothes fit in a bag that was easy to carry and store. I think in the end they prevailed!

After much unpacking and moving of furniture, most of the rooms were set up and we gathered for our first full-dorm meeting. We started with a game that got everyone working together in small groups to answer many questions about CSW, our policies, and the people in our community. It was great to see the returning students help answer questions for the new students. Kudos to Maddie--one of our new students--who was brave enough to read her groups' answers aloud. Correct answers were rewarded with twizzlers, and luckily there were a lot of correct answers! Our girls really know their stuff, so even if the new students get overwhelmed by all the new things to remember, at least they also know who they can turn to for help.

We spent the rest of our night going over dorm policies and procedures and answering questions before breaking out the snacks and catching up on everyone's summers. After a bit more rearranging and unpacking and decorating, everyone was in their room at 11:00 with alarms set to wake them for breakfast before classes tomorrow morning. There's a good positive energy as we face the first day of classes.

'night from CSW,
Melisa K

Goals for The Barn!

Hi Barnies!

Wasn't today's meeting EXCITING? Especially the rules part, right? I know it looks like there are so many but you learn them really quickly. After a couple of warnings, you won't forget to move the card ever again. ;)

Actually the dorm meetings are usually shorter than today's (for those of you thinking "OH NO I can't spend 2 hours every Tuesday in dorm meetings"). The meetings are sometimes as short as 10 minutes provided everyone is on time but usually about 20-25 minutes long.

On the more inspiring note: during the dorm leader training, Jin and I had a task of thinking of the goals for our dorm this year, and we came up with a few, and here they are. Feel free to add anything you think of in a comment below or by chatting with either of us.

- Make sure people are aware of each other so that there are no questions like "Are you from South Korea or North Korea?" and "How come Helen and Jofia have the same last name?"

- Make the dorm fun enough for people to want to stay in for the weekends.

- Have more activities going on! Maybe we could use this blog for suggestions and then post them on the white board? Everyone was up for movie nights and game nights last year and we never quite got an organized schedule for them. This year we need to make sure we work these out!

- Make sure there is interaction among the Barnies from different grades... Of course we all have our own groups of friends... but we are still one big family!

- Be better at organizing our parties/dances so that it's not like two people doing everything in the last moment. Last year we did a great job with the dorm dinner. We had the most democratic way of all dorms of choosing the Barn hoodie design. So that's the kind of teamwork we want to see more of this year.

- Make sure that we are considerate about living in a community. More specifically: no eating other people's food, taking care of your (and not someone else's) laundry, no shower saving, etc.

- Keep up the respectful and friendly atmosphere. Our dorm is famous for how respectful people are of each other, so we have an image to protect. :)

I hope we can all work together and make this happen!
I'm SO excited for this year!
Cheers,
Rada
(Dorm Leader)

First Night in the Dorm

Three of the newest additions to the Barn (Courtney, Briana, and Shari) are making good use of the upstairs lounge (and magnetic poetry board!) before in-room time at 11:00. We ended their first day in the dorm with the first dorm meeting of the year and a rousing game of Pictionary...during which we discovered we have some budding artists in the dorm.

Tomorrow the returning boarding students arrive, so the dorm will be full with all of the 2008-2009 Barnies.

Until then...
Melisa K