Renaissance Faire

Every year, MLC has its own Renaissance Faire fundraiser. Volunteers run booths of every kind, from cotton candy, to fortune telling, to Michelangelo pudding painting, to henna, to hair braiding, to stockades, to bean bag tosses, to cake walks, to used clothing sales, to archery--you can find it all! Medieval-looking banners and pennants are hung in the hallways, and everywhere you look you see a velvet dress or a pirate shirt. It's a great opportunity to dress up and have a great time!

Third Graders

Here are some more photos that we couldn't squeeze into the yearbook, of Anna's third grade class:

 

 

Blast from the Past!

We just found this photo on one of the MLC facebook pages, and thought it was far too awesome to not post. We think this is from sometime from the 70's or 80's, but if you happen to know, we'd love to know the right year. This room is now Steve Lambert's room, (room 300). We assume that this was a Base Station (maybe Rita's?). Base Stations were something akin to homerooms, but will all of the grades instead of just a few. We now operate with Metros (high school), Retros (7th and 8th graders) and just classes for the rest. Base Stations had every grade from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and were super cool! I wish we had them back, they were definitely something that helped build community. Base Stations don't exist anymore, but back in the day, when they did, they were pretty fantastic. What a great blast from the past this photo is!

Update: Found this...Lewis Holland there with the hair and the glasses and the I love Oregon t-shirt...shows just how long he's been a part of MLC! We love you, Lewis!

Halloween

Every year at Halloween, the entire school has a Halloween parade. Students strut around the neighborhood in their amazing costumes after gathering in the auditorium and watching the staff do their Thriller dance.

Winter Craft Fair

Students and parents show off their wares, 

while former MLC staff member Ruth

Frankel and others browse.

Every year after Solstice, a Winter Craft Fair is held in the gym. Students and parents sell their merchandise, and everyone can find something for winter holiday presents.

A Taste of Solstice

Solstice from 2009 is an interesting thing indeed. The entire high school portion is featured on YouTube...your authors are in part 4--see if you can spot us!

Part 2
Parts 3 & 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

All School Photo

Tim Horn, the parent of one of the kindergarten students at MLC, is a professional photographer, and was kind enough to take a ton of photos for the yearbook!  One very important thing that he did was take the All School Photo, which he did from the roof!  Every student and staff member present that day is in the picture, and we are so thankful to Tim for doing this for us.

Can you find your friends in there?

Marimba!

Here's a taste of what one of MLC's marimba bands sound like:

Update: Here's one from a few years ago:

Portfolios: So Much Better Than Finals

High school students at MLC don't take finals. (Yes, you read that right.) Instead, we complete culminating projects for each class. The piece can take almost any form imaginable--it could be a persuasive essay, a painting, a compilation of poems and photographs, a lab report, a math problem, a recipe book, or a video, to mention a few options. At the end of each year, we present three of those pieces--a writing piece, a problem solving piece, and a piece of our choice--to a panel of judges who score the presentation. Sophomores and seniors present to outside panelists--volunteers who may be parents, teachers' parents, or members of the larger community (for example, people who work at businesses nearby). Freshmen present to juniors, and juniors present to seniors.

This alternative method of proving what you have learned is, in my mind, a much more accurate and all-encompassing one. It lets the student explain what they learned, how they grew, and what they had difficulties with--it forces us to metacognate, and to really show all aspects of what we got out of a class, not just how well we take tests. It's yet one more thing that we love about MLC.

Hearts!

Look at the cool art some of the K x 3 family made for Valentines Day!  Aren't they beautiful?
These are still up in the hallway by Avril's room, near the main office, if you want to swing by and check them out in person.

Doug, the Douglas Fir

Doug is too big to fit in one picture. Here's the top of Doug.

John's class of first and second graders have been talking to Doug here. Doug is a Douglas Fir, and he's got a lot of fairy friends. They help him do what he can't...like write letters to his friends in John's class. They've been studying trees like him and his tree friends, and have been to visit Doug in his home forest at Forest Park. Doug watches over the hallways for us and loves to get letters back! 

Here's the bottom of Doug.

High School Plays

Every year, Bianca, the high school Art and Language Arts teacher, co-teaches a Theater class with an employee of Profile Theater. This year, they put on two plays by Terrence McNally. The first, Bad Habits, follows the inhabitants of a marriage counseling retreat called Ravenswood and a rehabilitation center called Dunelawn. The second play, It's Only A Play, follows actors in NYC as they impatiently wait for the opening night reviews of their play and what happens when they read them.

Here's an idea of what that looks like:

Murals: We Are All Connected

This mural is on the stairway going up to the high school hallway from the exit to the back parking lot. These photos offer two views of the same part of the mural: one directly facing it, and the lower photo as one would see it entering the school.

Fun Photos

In addition to creating this blog, Olivia and I had the privilege of being advisors for the MLC yearbook committee.  We've been able to get many of the awesome photos for this blog from our resources for creating the yearbook, which has been very helpful.  Here are some of the great photos that were submitted to the yearbook that we weren't able to publish.  Enjoy!

Awesome Things We Overheard at MLC Today

MLC kids tend to have some pretty awesome conversations. In just one day, these are some great things we overheard:


I can think ANYTHING! - 2nd grader

Whatcha doin', honey buns?! - 3rd grader to 12th grader

Has anyone patented vampire dentures? -12 grader

It's basically a pygmy puff on a stick -12th grader

I made a paper airplane that can't fly.  Isn't it cool? - Kindergartener

Let's burn the dragon! - 10th grader

I didn't get a haircut, I dyed the tips of my hair invisible! - 9th grader

Solstice

Every year, MLC puts on a celebration of the winter solstice. Every grade participates in some way, whether it be reciting a poem, dancing, or singing a song. The kindergarten traditionally sings What a Wonderful World, signing along in ASL. This year, Avril's class and John's class (1st and 2nd grade mixes) performed This Little Light of Mine, and Ned's class (6th grade) recited King John's Christmas, a poem by A.A. Milne.

In this picture, the school's marimba band performs while students and parents are sitting down. 

The kindergarten kids end their song with a bang.

The staff have a part in the performance too: every year, they rewrite the lyrics of a song they all know and sing to us about how much they love working at MLC. Where else could that happen but here?

The staff hold up paper stars in the middle of their song and dance...may we draw your attention to Ned's face (far left) for just a moment? We found it entertaining. 

The last portion of the celebration is a dance pageant done by high school students, which ends in the dancers leading the audience out to a bonfire in the parking lot. The pageant is created and run almost entirely by students, with a few staff supervisors. The pageant's plot always includes a few key points: there is always a Sun and Moon, and something (kidnapping, impostors, overgrown weeds) that takes the Sun away from the Earth for a while. Over the course of the dances, the Sun finds his or her way back to the planet, signifying the lengthening of the days, and the dancers celebrate his/her return. Students design and create choreography, plot, costumes, lighting, and set, and it all comes together in the hours before the performance in Bianca's room. 

Bianca (our awesome high school language arts and art teacher, and the one who really makes solstice possible for us) paints gold makeup on the Sun (Violet Lane-Ruckman).

For the high schoolers, one of the best parts of the process is getting ready to go on stage the day of. They hang out in Bianca's room and proceed to don costumes, makeup, and what seems like tons of glitter, teasing each other's hair to ridiculous heights.

Here, two sisters pose for the camera in all their glittery glory. 

After an hour or so of preparation comes the waiting. Since they're already in costumes, they're not allowed to escape into the hallways. They stay cooped up in the basement in anticipation of the show, growing crazier and more excited by the minute. Inevitably, someone decides a group photo is in order.

Here they are...both of your authors are in this photo, but I bet you can't find us! 

Finally, the moment arrives where they are let out of Bianca's room and led upstairs to the halls outside the auditorium. There, more waiting and controlled pandemonium takes place, until at last, everyone's turn comes up to be on stage. In the end, every dancer returns to the stage, and leads the audience outside. Once there, the entire school dances around the bonfire for a while to the drumming of students, staff, and parents.

The Jupiter group dances around the stage.

Meanwhile, representatives from each class burn the scraps from this year's power animals. This tradition consists of ripping animal shapes out of construction paper and writing our hopes for the coming year inside. After we finish writing, we staple them onto a string. The animals are put on display in the commons, where everyone can enjoy them. On the scraps that are left over, we write what we want to put behind us from the past year.

Burning the scraps, drumming, and dancing! In other words, the awesomeness that is the solstice bonfire. Be not deceived by its small size.

A staff member drums while students and parents look on.

Solstice is also one of the most popular times for alumni to come visit...we usually see graduated students and retired teachers walking around and reconnecting. A good bit of tomfoolery goes down, and everyone enjoys themselves. Of course, the free cake doesn't hurt! It's a great opportunity for students to bond, and crazy pictures get taken (as evidenced by the pictures you see here). Overall, it's a great way to showcase students' creativity and imagination, while having quite a bit of fun in the process, and is one of the traditions dearest to the MLC community.

The Imposter Sun, Sun, and Imposter Moon pose for a photo. They look awesome! 

P.S. On a side note, Lewis Holland's ex-wife was the creator of Solstice at MLC. Lewis is the high school math teacher, and has been teaching at MLC for 40 years!

Senior Power!

The seniors this year have accomplished some amazing things, and are well on their way to so many more fantastic adventures!  These 30 individuals are about to move on to the next step in their lives, whether that be college, an internship, a job, travel, or something else wonderful. To give you an idea of what they'll be up to, here is a list of some of the colleges that the seniors were admitted to.

Portland State University
Oregon State University
Portland Community College
University of Oregon
University of Portland
University of Portland Honors
Beloit College
Hampshire College
Willamette University
College of Wooster
Mount Holyoke College
Naropa University
Carnegie Mellon University
Ohio Wesleyan University
Seattle University
The Evergreen State College
Lewis and Clark College
Emerson College
The Art Institute of Portland
University of Puget Sound
Southern Oregon University
Southern Oregon University Honors
Case Western Reserve University
University of Maryland Balitmore County

In addition to the 28 seniors and two graduating juniors, one sophomore was admitted to an early college, Bard College at Simon's Rock!

Murals: Penguin Pals

You may have noticed some of these tiny penguins hidden around the classroom and hallways of MLC.  These silly friends were put up during last Spring's Art of Murals class, by now-senior Orianna O'Neill (who happens to be writing this post.)  How many can you find in the school?  I'll give you a hint, there are more than 15.  Also, be on the lookout, there will very soon be a new penguin joining the crew!  Look in the murals popping up all over the school during this trimester.

Kindergarteners

Yesterday, when I was being a Teacher's Apprentice for Carol's kindergarten class, I witnessed an amazing moment in a child's life. The kids were cleaning up after drawing some amazing igneous rocks, and most of them were wandering around holding colored pencils and singing the clean-up song. A few were talking to each other, and the room was a nice, productive chaos. I noticed that one boy was repeating something over and over, so I went over and asked him what he was saying. He told me "Remember to respect the learning community!" I thanked him for his words, and as he went over to help clean up the pencils, he told at least five more kindergarteners his great message. These kids never fail to amaze me.

Murals: Under the Sea

This mural lives in the hallway across from Andy's room.

Murals: Little Cosmos

This mural was painted in 2002 by Mary Jane F. It lives between banks of lockers between Kelly's and Ned's rooms.