Virtual Vanessa
Hi! I am Vanessa Zimmerman, and I am a member of the 2009
graduating class at Northfield. I have been going to Northfield for
five years now. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like the small,
community atmosphere. I know the other students’ siblings’ names, their
parents’ names, what their parents do for a living, etc., and I really
like that. My grade has only nine students including me, so we are able
to have discussions in class and feel comfortable giving our opinions
because we all know each other pretty well. My class is actually one of
the
largest graduating classes in NFS history. The school is like a huge
extended family.
Another thing I like is morning convocation, which is held every day
except Wednesday. For these convocations, teachers and students
gather in one big room to learn together, pray together, and
listen together. In addition to the convocation topic of the day, we
hear about the news and events going on inside and out of school,
including upcoming sports games, student performances, and Friday
lunches (which are always something special and are fundraisers for
different school activities).
I also really like the high school formal, which is attended
by upper school students. For many students, it is the most
anticipated event of the entire year. The girls always get ready
together at one girl’s house, and the guys always get ready at one
guy’s
house. The guys come to meet the girls, and we take a group
picture. Then a party bus picks us up and takes us to dinner. After
dinner,
the bus drops everyone off for the party, which is usually held outside
in someone’s backyard. My freshman year, the refreshments included a
chocolate fountain! We have a great sound system and great music and we
line-dance and swing-dance and dance and dance until eleven o’clock,
and then everyone helps clean up. The seniors put on the formal every
year, so this year will be my turn. I love Northfield.
Band: (7:45-8:15)
Every day, the band warms up by playing scales. Today we warmed up by playing the Concert F Major scale. Then Mrs. Yoder, the band teacher, went around the room to give everyone a chance to tune their instruments. She asked us to turn to the 26thexercise of our band books, called “Green Grow the Rashes,” a Scottish folk song. The song was in 2-4 time, had two sharps, and was composed mostly of eighth notes. We played the song twice through; I would have found it a little difficult to play if I hadn’t practiced the night before.
After that, Mrs. Yoder asked us to get out the new piece of music she had handed out to us a week ago, called “From Whom All Blessings Flow” by Clifton James Jones. This song is for the upcoming Thanksgiving Feast program. Mrs. Yoder commanded our attention again and we started playing the three-page song. We only got to the 39th measure when she stopped us. Someone had played during the rest and the drums had gone off the beat. She worked with drums on their part and after she was satisfied, we started the song from the beginning again.
This time, we got all the way to measure 79 before she stopped us. She asked the wind section to play measures 78 through 92 by themselves. After we had done this, she started the whole band at measure 78 and we went all the way to measure 147 before she stopped us again. She reminded us that the winds need to slur the notes and not tongue the notes of measures 141 through 144. The entire band started again at measure 141 and we played until we got to measure 188. She asked us to repeat the section again, and then again, and then we started to put away our instruments. Mrs. Yoder dismissed us with a “Good job, you guys; see you tomorrow.”
Convocation:
(8:00-8:45)
Today was Thursday, so convocation featured Mr. Love, the founder of
our
school and retired headmaster, giving a presentation from the 100 Great
Books. Mr. Love usually reads a section or chapter of a Great Book
written by
one of the ancients, like Aristotle, Lucretius, Plato, Ptolemy,
Archimedes, and so forth, then asks questions like “What comes first,
philosophy or knowledge?” or “What comes first, circle or center?”
I am always
fifteen minutes late for Convocation because of band, so I always feel
a
little out of
the loop at first. Every
student has a convocation notebook in which they are expected to take
notes,
answer weekly questions, and define vocabulary words.
Today, Mr. Love gave us the definitions of fractus:
a
form of chaos expressed in matter, and chaos:
emptiness or
disorder.
We had a discussion
on whether an
infinite circle can have a defined perimeter.
At the end of the discussion, Mr. Love assigned us the
homework of
researching the Koch Snowflake, discovering why it was called a
“monster
snowflake,” and
finding the definition of the word proem.
Study Hall: (8:50-9:55)
Today I prepared for a test over the second chapter of our government book. I felt that I knew the definitions and concepts of the chapter pretty well, but I was still reviewing everything, just in case. The main thing I was studying for was an essay I would have to write on the three ways that Canada, Switzerland, and Germany approach federalism. Canada combines a federal system with a parliamentary form of government. Switzerland established a confederation on the basis of regional governments or cantons. Germany has a central government, a bicameral parliament, and an independent judiciary. Its sixteen states retain residual powers over all matters except foreign affairs, money, telecommunications, and immigration, and have concurrent powers over civil and criminal law, education, health, and the public welfare.
Capstone Literature and Composition:
(10:00-11:05)
Today Mr. Coleman discussed the dangers of not
examining your life, and why it is important to understand traditions
and rituals. This topic stemmed from a short story that he read to us
last week called “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson. This story is about
a village that carries on an ancient and violent tradition every year.
This tradition, which was supposed to ensure a good harvest, entailed
gathering all the villagers to the town square, and having the head
of each family draw out a folded slip of paper from an old black box.
All of the folded pieces were blank except one, which had a black dot
on it. Whoever drew this paper was then required to draw again, along
with the other members of his family. This time, whoever got the paper
with the black dot was immediately stoned. This story is an example of
people who do not question their actions.
Before Mr. Coleman started the story, he
passed around a black box and each of us had to draw out a folded piece
of paper. After he finished the story, he asked each one of us to open
our pieces of paper, and you could just feel everyone holding their
breath. He then told us that no one got the black dot; instead, we were
assigned the homework of writing on that blank sheet about our personal
traditions and why they are meaningful to us.
Today, I read my paper
out loud to the class about a tradition my family does for each of our
birthdays: we relight the candles to be blown out two or three times
and call my older sister on the phone so that she can sing the Happy
Birthday song too, since she doesn’t live with us now.
Government:
(11:10-12:15)
Today we took the government test that I referred to during my first study hall period. Before we took the test, Mr. Spurgeon, the history teacher, reminded us of the three court cases in American history, all ruled on by Judge John Marshall, that declared national supremacy (when Federal and State are in conflict, Federal always wins). The first part of the test was multiple choice questions, the second part was short answer questions, the third part gave us terms to define, and the last part was the essay on different approaches to federalism in other countries. The hardest part of the test for me was the essay.
Lunch:
(12:15-12:45)
I ate outside on the dock today because it was warmer than usual. I love to eat outside because there are not many windows in the school and it’s a different atmosphere from the classroom. I ate Ramen noodles that had been cooked and seasoned the night before and a snack mix of nuts and raisins.
Study Hall:
(12:50-1:55)
During this hour, I read the book, The Universe Next Door by James W. Sire. I am reading this book and two other books, Thales to Dewey by Gordon H. Clark and How Should We Then Live? by Francis A. Schaeffer, for my graduate project on different worldviews. The teacher in charge of this class, Tom Penning, actually lives in Lemmon, South Dakota, but he used to teach history at Northfield. I contact him on the phone and through email with questions I have, and every week, I answer his questions on the reading. By the end of the school year, I will be required to publicly defend my worldview.
Latin III:
(2:00-3:00)
I am reviewing everything I have learned in Latin from the past two years, and am presently in part two of the first book. In this class, I am the only student, so I am able to work one-on-one with the teacher, Mr. Graf, who is also our headmaster. Today, I reviewed special intransitive verbs in the dative case, personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns, possessive adjectives, and compound verbs. I then took turns with Mr. Graf on an exercise, translating Latin sentences into English and then filling in the blank of a missing word with the correct special intransitive verb in the dative, personal pronoun, reflexive pronoun, possessive adjective, or compound verb. Then Mr. Graf and I did another exercise in which we took turns reading an English sentence out loud, picked out the pronouns in the sentence, and then translated those pronouns into the correct form in Latin. After that, Mr. Graf assigned me twenty sentences in Latin to translate into English. I usually finish my assignments in class, but this was a rather large one, so it was one of the few that I did not hand in at the end of class.
Choir:
(3:05-3:45)
Today our music teacher, Mrs. Hetherington, was running a little late, so one of the girls volunteered to lead the warm-up exercises. As we were on the last exercise, Mrs. Hetherington arrived. She asked us to take out our copy of the song “All is Well” and to start on measure nine. We sang the song all the way to the end, much to her satisfaction, and we did not need to work on any particular part of the song. She then asked us to take from our music folders the song “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past.” We will perform both of these songs at the Thanksgiving Feast program.
Basketball:
(4:00-5:30)
Today, we did our regular warm-up: we stretched, ran two baby suicides (a drill that involves running to the free throw line, back to the baseline, then to the half court line, and back to the baseline), and did a couple footwork drills. After that, we sprinted to the half court line, did a defensive slide across the court, and then ran backward to the baseline. We did this three times. We shot baskets for a while, and then Mr. Spurgeon, our coach, taught us two new plays: high-low and cut. We practiced them for close to an hour, and then split into teams of five and played against each other, incorporating the two plays into our game.
