“Excavating the clutter of summer classrooms bestowed a bounty of ancient wonders from the CHS Humanities department. Behold! Cuneiform and cylinder seal tablets from eons past! Well, from the Fall of 2024 that is. Students of Gilgamesh: Fraternity and Urbanism in the Ancient Near East created these inspiring cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals.
See if you can decipher their meaning!”
Thanks for sharing, Warren.
The Transcendentalists & Suffragettes class visited the American Shakespeare Center for their lovely production of “Little Women”. After reading this classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, the students enjoyed the fresh adaptation played out before their very eyes. The cold rain, however, did cause them to have to relocate their picnic plans.
In the Vienna 1900 class, students learned about a variety of Art Nouveau artists and architects from Austria-Hungary. They then had the fortunate opportunity to take a guided tour of the Alphonse Mucha exhibition at the Taubman Museum of Art.
The History of Tea class recently hosted a Russian Tea Party in the yard. The menu showcased classic Russian dishes, including borscht, dense Baltic rye bread, round pretzels, marinated herring, and caviar cream.
Rachel visited our Sherlock Holmes & the Dawn of the Information Age class to give them a lesson in handwriting analysis.
Dr. Bryan Klausmeyer, Assistant Professor of German at Virginia Tech, gave an engaging presentation to the German Romanticism class. They explored the intersections of poetry and science in the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, an important figure in the class. Students contemplated how poetic devices may help us examine the relationship between humans and nature. Dr. Klausmeyer has published several texts on Goethe and is an editor of the Goethe-Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts.
The Tea Class practiced mindfulness through the art of tea preparation and enjoyment, providing a calming sanctuary in everyday life.
The History of Tea and the French language students got together for a community tea party, complete with presentations about components related to the tea tradition. The china they used was from Luxembourg, which is 40 minutes from Rachel’s hometown of Metz. The mirabelle tea they served was from Metz, the bergamote tea and the bergamote candy were from Nancy, and the madeleines they baked are a specialty of Comercy. Metz, Nancy, and Commerce are all cities in Lorraine, which is the only region in France to have 3 borders: Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium. We love learning about global tea traditions!
The Arab American Literature class was honored to host Pauline Kaldas, who serves as Susan Gager Jackson Professor of Creative Writing at Hollins University. Pauline co-edited an amazing anthology of Arab American fiction, Dinarzad’s Children, which has been an amazing source of Arab American fiction for the class. Pauline discussed being Egyptian American, editing the anthology, and some of her own short story writing. In addition, she brought some homemade baklava! It was a thought provoking, and tasty day of literary analysis!
Community members Jinny Woodall-Gainey and Sue Williams came to talk to our students about voting. They emphasized several key points:
We are thankful to Jinny and Sue for empowering our students with the knowledge and tools necessary to participate actively in their democracy.