The Burke
Report

Tomorrow night, the Upper School ASB will sponsor the second annual Open Mic Night at Overlake.  This is a more relaxed/coffeehouse version of a talent show, and it is an opportunity and venue for Overlake students to showcase their talents for a crowd.  Traditionally, there is an intimate crowd of around 80 people who cheer on kids who may be performing in front of an audience for the first time.  In fact, last year, Mark Stagno, a current senior, won Open Mic Night, and it was his first live performance.  Since then, he has continued performing appearing in the benefit concert and regularly playing in a band.  Please feel free to come out and check out the amazing talent in a relaxed atmosphere with light food and drinks available via the Outreach Club.  See you tomorrow night at 6:00 PM in the Campus Center.

Below is an opportunity that I became aware of via a relationship that I have with a member of KIVA.org.  Please check it out if you are interested in a gap year experience. 

Global Citizen Year – Apply Today!

Each year, Global Citizen Year (GCY) selects a corps of high school seniors and supports them through apprenticeships in Africa and Latin America during a “bridge year” before college. Students enter college with the ability to speak a second language, a clearer sense of themselves, and a global perspective. GCY is looking for emerging leaders who have exceptional potential, steadfast principles, and contagious passion. Our next application deadline (March 15th) is fast approaching!

CLICK HERE<http://globalcitizenyear.org/landing/WELCOME/> (http://globalcitizenyear.org/landing/WELCOME/)

or email david@globalcitizenyear.org<mailto:david@globalcitizenyear.org> to learn more.

–

Abigail Falik

Global Citizen Year

www.globalcitizenyear.org<http://www.globalcitizenyear.org/> | 415.963.9293 ext 101

Applications are open! Nominate a student or refer an educator: http://bit.ly/bBHmXe

This is only a test. If you are used to getting my blog sent directly to your email via RSS feed, you may want to check that you are still getting it and that the feed is functioning. I will be posting information here again soon. So, thanks for your patience while the technical difficulties were addressed.

In our ongoing work to educate students about plagiarism and how to avoid it in their work, I wanted to pass on two resources that may be of interest.  One is packet of information that was handed out to our seniors as a way of guiding them as they produce work throughout the year, and the second is a link to some resources available through Princeton University.  Both have positive and negative examples of plagiarism as well as some tips for creating work habits that combat this issue. 

Princeton Link: http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/08/intro/

Resource: http://www.theoverlakeschool.org/faculty/msugano/AP%20English/Writing%20Materials/Avoiding%20Plagiarism.pdf

Just a note about Facebook.  Facebook has implemented new privacy settings that make it much easier to broadly share your personal information. If you accept Facebook’s recommended privacy settings, Facebook will make your status updates, links, photos, videos, and notes available to the entire Internet (think Google). I recommend that you instead manually adjust your settings. Select Settings -> Privacy Settings from the blue menu bar and review the options in there.

In addition, Facebook will now share your friend list both on the Internet and with third-party Facebook applications. You do not have control over that.

The following article explains the change in greater detail: http://tinyurl.com/fbprivacy20091209

New in the US this year is the position of Advisory Team Leader.  This position was created as a way of tapping the skill and talent of our veteran advisors.  As many parents may already know, we have been looking at our Advisory Program closely over the last two years, and this position is just one component that has enhanced how we work with students on a daily basis. 

Advisory Team Leaders work directly with a team of advisors in each grade level, and their job is to coordinate activities, encourage consistent communication home to parents and share resources for our new teachers that are learning our system and students.  So far this year, advisors have shared more information with each other than in any other year that I have been at Overlake.  We have engaged in rich conversation about the purpose of advisory, and we are making progress towards aligning all that we do directly with our mission statement. 

In Advisory, this is no small job, as being a “good advisor” is an allusive and subtle skill.  It is also a moving target as each student needs something different, and it is impossible to be everything to everyone all the time, which is sometimes what the expectation of being a “good advisor” feels like.  Truth be told, teachers are given very little training in school in advising students, and for some teachers it takes them out of their comfort zone in a way that they do not experience in any other aspect of their job. 

Research tells us that having one adult responsible for the overall well-being of a student is an imperative.  What I will say is having one adult that is responsible for coordinating and helping each grade level is also an imperative, and I believe that these four team leaders have made a positive impact across the Upper School.  Those team leaders are:

9th Grade: Bob Bristol

10th Grade: Dave Parsons

11th Grade: Ellen Zarter

12th Grade: Greg Bamford

• December 11th:  Dress Up Day - Winter Banquet - This event is an annual chance for homerooms to gather and have a special lunch.  Students and faculty dress up, and the Jazz Band performs for the student body while they are eating. 
• December 16-18th: Finals – This year Wednesday and Thursday will be full days with three finals slots throughout the day.  Students will only have a maximum of two core academic finals in any given day and the 18th is a half day with only two finals slots.  If you have questions about this year’s finals schedule, please email or call gbuhaly@overlake.org.  As always, the two days prior to finals are finals prep days where classes are reviewing. 
• January 12th:  Graduate Return Program- Each year we bring back alumni of past years to speak to our current students about the college experience.  It is a chance for alumni to pass on wisdom and reflect back to students what they took away from Overlake when they went to college.  This event will take place during community time.
• January 13th: Dance Concert – This is exactly what it sounds like…a concert featuring our US Dance students.  Please come out and support our kids that are taking dance by watching them perform.  This concert takes place at 7:30PM in the Fulton Performing Arts Center.
• January 21st: US Club Fair – This will be a chance for clubs that did not go in the first semester to re-pitch their ideas to the student body.  Kids will have the chance to switch clubs and shop around other opportunities. 
• January 22nd: US Dance – We have not set a theme for this dance yet, but we are working on it.  This is an informal dance and will run from 8-11PM in our Campus Center.  Admission to informal dances is 5 dollars. 
• February 5th: Martin Luther King Day Assembly – While MLK day is in January, we are taking advantage of community time on February 5th to have our annual MLK assembly in the US.  This assembly is planned by the IMPACT club, and will occur in the Fulton Performing Arts Center. 

Arguably, December might be the hardest month of the year for people.  Why you ask?  For students at Overlake, it means finding out whether or not they got the part in the all school musical, or whether they made varsity basketball.  It means studying for finals, and in some cases, freezing up and not doing as well as one would like.  It means less sunlight and cold temperatures, which in turn means less Vitamin D and less good endorphins.  In families in means travel and extended family, parties, stress and joy.  The holidays are times when kids miss people who have passed away most and often when fighting parents or divorce hurts the worst.  At school, this means a lot of tears and emotion, and we all know how a lot of emotion affects our ability to buckle down and get things done.  At home, this means busy schedules and company over for dinner.  Company often means family, and families are complicated entities even at their best.  I write this to remind our community to check in with kids often and take time to connect and listen to how they are doing.  At school, I do three key things to make sure I am attuned to kids.  I pay attention, I ask how kids are doing, and when they say “fine”, I say, “What does fine mean?”, and I trust my gut.  While December can be hard, it is also one of the months that people look forward to for many of the same reasons it is hard, so have a great holiday season, and as a community, we will work together to celebrate our students many joys and support them in times that are tough.

After years of anticipation, freshly cooked hot dogs are now available at the Bird Feeder.  While we haven’t yet explored all of the possibilities, we see the potential for all sorts of variety including beef, veggie, soy and yes….foot long franks.  This is courtesy of the Upper School ASB.  So, the next time you are at a game, and pizza sounds old and out of date, we have the answer for you.  Come and check out the Owls on Friday after school at 3:30 and 5:00PM in the new Gym.

I recently had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours on Friday night at The Lab, which is a local music venue that caters to new artists and teenage bands.  I had been meaning to see four of our seniors play for months, and I had yet to make it happen.  Chris Shank, Wyatt Parks, Trevor Partington and Scott Heiner make up Wyatt Parks and the Social Club and these four seniors have been practicing and playing separately for a long time, but only recently, have they come together and played as a band.  As so often happens at Overlake, I was blown away by the talent and polish of our kids.  Away from Overlake, in a tiny venue that reminded me of the old Seattle music scene, these four kids(almost adults) played with talent, passion and skill.  I can remember each one of them as 8th graders, minus Trevor as he was not here then, and they have come so far.  While they did deal with some technical difficulties, they proceeded to play about six songs, and I never once considered plugging my ears.  This is more than I can say for band that played before them, and it reminded me that to really know our kids at Overlake, sometimes you have to drive to Seattle and see them in their element.  While I cannot predict if Wyatt and his band will become famous, I do know that I gladly paid five dollars to get their current release, and my fingers are crossed.