Skip to main content

High School Highlights

Yet again I get my news from David Hobby @strobist on Twitter, who alerted me to this:

BIG ups to the one-woman heavy artillery squad on our local HS softball team today, who hit for the "home run cycle".
#IsThatAThing
#ItIsNow

In response to this from Wild Lake High School:

AMAZING! History made at the @hcpss_wlhs field today! @Fathom_Leslie hits FOUR HR's! A 1run, 2run, 3run, & GRANDSLAM! The cycle of homeruns!

Hats off to Faith Leslie. I hear they are working on a suitably "fear-inducing nickname" for her.

In other high school news, choral assessments were hosted by Howard High School yesterday, and no body tweeted about it. Well, almost nobody. Nick Novak, principal of Howard High School, shared a video clip of his Concert Choir and some positive words. But that's it. Where were all the choral music geeks? Directors? Principals and other admin? Parents?

A bit of background: I track and share any hcpss-related music tweets for Howard County Parents for School Music. And there were plenty for Band Assessments and Orchestra Assessments. The silence on Choral Assessments struck me. Do people care less about choral music? Are choral directors less aggressive when it comes to self-promotion? Are principals and admin burned out after the first two rounds of assessments? Or perhaps the fact that this date had to be rescheduled after the snow day has something to do with it.

Here's a little something I wrote about how choral singing sometimes takes a back seat to other performing ensembles:

Sing Out

What do you think?



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...