Halloween at Emma

It’s the EMMA HALLOWEEN! This year was special because it happened on Thursday. Students got the chance to take a wonderful break in the middle of the academic week. The very first exciting thing was, of course, the dressing up. We had people from cartoon characters to movies stars, daily life objects to videos games, ghosts to beasts, and crazy women to swine flu. It was crazy and amazing to see different characters walking down the hallway or sitting right next to you in class. Our school basically turned to a “mix-up everything” movie. The creative and distinct costumes made the school day not only funnier, but also faster, in a good way. The second enlightening thing was the food at dinner; the kitchen prepared a big dinner with French fries, chicken fingers, cheese sticks, cakes, cookies, candies, and caramel apples. The dining hall was full of people, and their plates were full of food. The third ebullient thing that happened was the parade; every character became a model and showed their own characteristic. Judges gave prizes to some special ones, but everyone showed their best side. The fourth thing was the scary haunted house, which took place beside the health center. Proctors became the scary emotionless black creepers that made a lot of screaming that night. And, finally, the “sweetest” thing happened—trick-or-treat! Emma girls got to go to faculty houses near the campus and get a lot of candies! Happy Halloween! Check out the Photos page for a slideshow of Halloween costumes. Emma Willard students are very creative!

Submitted by Peggie ‘12

Exploration. Junior Seminar

Juniors assembled in Kiggins for the second time on October 28. After finishing their personality types online, juniors learned deeper meanings of what their personality code represented. They wrote down what their advantages are and what they needed to improve on notecards for the first activity. And then, they discussed with a partner to figure out the differences between one and the other. Later on, juniors had another activity that helped clarify their type of personality. Juniors learned a lot through junior seminar and felt more confident towards their lives.

Submitted by: Sherry ‘11

Computers, computing, and you

Mr. McCorkle, director of academic technology, spoke at today’s assembly about computer etiquette with topics such as the proper way to respond to an evite and politely compose a helpdesk request, what and what not to print, how to handle a computer, how to connect to wireless and make updates, and why the network is sometimes slow.

Scarves!

The pink scarf was done by advanced weaving student, Leah '10. It is woven differently than the others.

The weaving class has finished their first project, which was making 6 foot long scarves. The scarves were woven using the plain weave stitch. Ask the students about their next project!

Submitted by: Lydia ‘12

Still Undefeated

The Varsity Soccer team had their  last home game on Monday, October 26th.  Players on the team made posters for the senior members of their team to congratulate them.  Many friends and family members came to cheer for their great team.  And yes, varsity is still undefeated for the season! Way to go, soccer!

 Submitted by: Florrie ‘12

A community of caring

This morning’s inspirational speaker was Betsy Lamoureux, director of student activities, who tells her story about dealing with Hepatitis C. On Sunday, Race for a Cause, a campus community service group, will host a 5k race to raise money for research. Hear Betsy’s story here and learn more about the race in our previous post here.

New Century Saxophone Quartet

New Century Saxophone Quartet

On Saturday evening, Emma Willard hosted Friends of Chamber Music and a performance by the New Century Saxophone Quartet in Kiggins Hall. Although the weather was not as delightful as we would have wanted, Kiggins Hall was filled with lively music composed by Jean-Baptiste Singelée, J.S Bach, Astor Piazolla, George Gershwin, and Russell Peck.

Submitted by Meryll ‘11

Feeling Fried?

The iLab

Many of you have been told to stay far from the microwave when it is in use to prevent harm to your body; however, most of us never contemplated the harmful effects of cell phone radiation which uses the same kind of radiation as the microwave. There are few disclaimers warning against cell phone use because the dangers of cell phone radiation have been a new issue in the scientific and medical world. Therefore, there has not been any long term research to confirm the level of harm of the cell phone’s radiation.

To find out how to reduce the possible risks from using a cell phone, Mr. Evans’s Physics II class spent a week working on an online experimental lab conducted by MIT called iLab. The lab helped determine whether or not you can reduce the amount of radiation absorbed in your brain by increasing the distance from you and your cell phone. By measuring how many electrons were given off by radiation at different intervals, the students found out that the farther you’re away from the source of radiation, the less amount of radiation you’ll absorb, because of the indirect relationship bound between proximity and intensity. This means that the amount of microwave radiation emitted from your cell phone to your brain can be reduced by simply having your cell phone farther away from yourself. Don’t worry, there are ways that you can protect yourself without ditching your cell phone! You can increase the distance between yourself and your cell phone to reduce the amount of radiation you absorb; you can use the speaker feature on your cell phone while calling or get a “airtube headset” (as opposed to a wired headset which can attract even more radiation from the surroundings). If you are ever changing your cell phone, you may want to ask about the “SAR” (Specific Absorption Rate) for the phone in order to get the phone that can best reduce the amount of radiation going into your body. Don’t get us wrong, we love our cell phones, too; just keep in mind that limiting your cell phone usage may be beneficial to your health in the future!

Submitted by: Iris and Natalia ‘11

Dynamic duo

photo by John Carl D'Annibale, Times-Union

Congratulations to Shibani ‘10 and Mitali ‘13 for a great run at the Section II individual tournmaent. They made it all the way to the finals before dropping a highly competitive doubles match against the #1 seeded Saratoga team. They will be one of three doubles teams from Section II heading to the state tournament in Syracuse in a few weeks. Read more about it in the Times-Union.

Parent Days

The Kiggins crush after Morning Reports

Today parents had the opportunity to experience firsthand their daughters’ classes and activities, and meet advisors, teachers, houseparents, and coaches. They socialized with other parents and got acquainted with their daughters’ friends and classmates. Check out the videos page for highlights of the day.