Big Sis / Little Sis

Ellie (Class of 2014)

Even though CSG has girls from preschool to high school, I still feel connected with all divisions of the school. I think the greatest way that the school encourages relationships between older and younger girls is through the “Big Sis/Little Sis” program. In seventh grade you are assigned a little sister in the first grade and usually keep that same little sister until you graduate and she is in sixth grade. We meet a few times a year to do activities together and catch up. It’s a lot of fun to hear what’s happening in the Lower School and in my little sister’s life!

This past Friday we had a Big Sis/ Little Sis event. These days are also called Red-Gold days. The even numbered classes (class of 2012, 2014, 2016, etc.) are the Red Team and the odd numbered classes are the Gold Team.  I’m on the Red Team, so I get to wear a red shirt and jeans and girls on the Gold Team get to wear a gold shirt and jeans. The most recent event was this past Friday, near Earth Day, so we wrote and colored messages about the Earth in sidewalk chalk in the courtyard. 

Our events also usually involve a service project, so this time we created flowers out of magazines and wrote messages. They will be sent to Nationwide Children’s Hospital and hung up as decorations.

Public Speaking Class

by Ellie (Class of 2013)

One of my favorite classes at the moment, which happens to be a semester class, is public speaking. So far we have written and delivered a few different speeches – an introduction speech for another girl in our class, a speech to demonstrate a task (for example, my friend Audrey demonstrated how to tack up a horse), and a speech that covered a current event in only 45 seconds. Not only do we write and deliver speeches, but we also cultivate skills such as connecting with an audience and delivering eloquent speeches. This week we worked on reading poetry. First we chose any poem from a book in the library and studied its punctuation and meaning before reading it aloud to the class. After that, we all opened a different poetry book and read whatever poem was on the page we opened to without studying it beforehand. It was a good way to use our newly acquired oration skills and try some improv! We even snapped instead of clapping after each girl read. I think it’s fantastic that public speaking is a required course because, as my teacher Mrs. Davis said on the first day of class, everyone will have to stand up and speak in front of a group people some time in life! 

Independent Study

by Ellie (Class of 2014)

CSG provides broad educational opportunities. In addition to the typical core classes we can pick up independent studies in subjects we're interested in. This semester my history teacher offered the girls in my history class the option of taking an independent study class for credit. In this independent study, my classmates and I read current event articles and then discuss the themes and some of the tough issues within the articles. There are eight girls in this group. We all read the articles before our class meets (once every six school days). Our teacher starts the discussion and we branch out from there. For example, this week we read an article last week about the political parties in the United States and how Republicans and Democrats today are more concerned about opposing each other and being enemies rather than addressing the issues. Our discussion was very interesting because not only did we discuss the article itself but our ideas grew beyond what was written on the page. I'm really interested in politics and journalism so I love reading these articles and debating them with my classmates!