For the 2022-2023 school year we have decided to experiment with replacing Biweeklies 8 and 16 with biweekly-long projects instead of regular Academic Work Time. Biweekly 8 will be an intersession project, decided on and executed by the whole group, and Biweekly 16 will be dedicated to a capstone or review project. Stay tuned for updates throughout the school year!

Intersession

9/16/22: The whole class is busy planning the Winter Intersession for its inaugural debut. Our 8th biweekly this year is devoted to a student-planned project that they will explore and design as a group. They’ve been tasked with developing questions about topics they are interested in and presenting these at the end of October. Again, new to this year is an experiment in inquiry and collaboration, and we’re confident that these Four Winds students are up to the task.

12/16/22: We will be starting our first ever January Intersession on 1/9. The students pitched many ideas and ultimately voted on a theater and film based project.

1/17/23: Students began their Winter Intersession last week! The theme for this inaugural Intersession is film and theater, and students are putting on a production of Reverse Hamlet by George Freek. We’ve been able to use this as an opportunity to talk about adaptations, genre, drama, and visual art among many other topics.

1/24/23: After several snow day interruptions, we have finally finished up our Intersession project! Students performed our little production of Reverse Hamlet this afternoon to a miniature audience of the teachers and the stage crew. Over the last two weeks the crew worked on painting the backdrop, crafting props, and researching and assembling costumes, while the actors worked on learning about their characters, interpreting Elizabethan English, memorizing lines, and learning how to convey emotion onstage. We all learned a lot about Hamlet and Shakespeare, as well as all the many extra bits and pieces that go into a theater production!

Capstone

5/5/23: Can you believe that next Friday 5/12 is the last day of academic work time? The following/final biweekly will be our inaugural capstone project, during which students will focus on individual projects that they have selected and been preparing for. These projects will replace all of our usual subjects and you will be able to view the final results at graduation. After our successful first intermission project in January, we’re really excited to see how these capstone projects turn out!

5/22/23: Last week and this week at Four Winds School is our first ever capstone projects! Unlike our first ever intersession this winter, in which students chose and executed a group project, students are now working on individually planned and executed projects. The variety of projects that students chose is quite interesting! We’ve got cardboard models of The Titanic and a space shuttle, a short animated scene, a decay table poster, a model fox, marionettes, sewing projects, comic books, an essay, and more! Completed projects will be on display at our commencement ceremony: we can’t wait to see how they turn out!

6/2/23: After two weeks of hard work on their capstone projects, students had the opportunity to display them at our 2023 commencement ceremony! We are very proud and amazed by what they were able to accomplish in two weeks, and can’t wait to see how next year’s intersession and capstone projects turn out. Have a great summer!