News & Events
Diversity News
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Cultural Night Celebration
Parents and students enjoyed food, dancing, and fun at Community Night during Book Fair. The festival of international cultural displays, music, performances, and foods represented the many cultures that comprise our Potomac School community. We had displays and food from places as diverse as India, Pakistan, Haiti, Philippines, China, Korea, Kenya, Trinidad/Tobago, Panama, Ireland, Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. We also had religious displays for the Bahai and Jewish faiths.
This year, in addition to displays and food, several of our Korean families created a dance ensemble as well as a traditional Korean wedding. Mr. Jones also contributed with a collection of international children’s literature.
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Potomac Distinguished Speaker Series Presents "Come Walk in My Shoes"
In celebration of the Martin Luther King holiday, Potomac welcomes filmmaker, writer, and director Robin Smith, who will screen her new documentary Come Walk in My Shoes to the Upper School on January 16, at 9:45 am in the Langstaff Auditorium. Featuring Georgia Congressman John R. Lewis leading his Congressional colleagues to the sacred sites of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, the film brings Lewis' personal recollections to life through historic footage and music.
Congressman Lewis, the son of a sharecropper, was 18 when he first met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He lived his deep conviction that young people can bring about change peacefully.
"If they had given medals in the civil rights struggle, he would have had a chestful for courage shown and injuries suffered. He was arrested more than 40 times, 17 in Nashville alone, during the lunchroom sit-ins. He was beaten in Montgomery and thrown into a notorious Mississippi state prison. When his contemporaries talked about Lewis, they always began with testimonials to his fearlessness.” – Tom Brokaw
Come Walk in My Shoes has been an official selection in eight film festivals including the Charlotte Film Festival, where it won the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary, and the Columbus Film Festival, where it received the Chris Statuette for Best in Humanities. Robin Smith, the film's producer, writer, and director, is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with 30 years of experience. She will show clips from the film and discuss this historic time with the Potomac community.
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Cultural Night Celebration
Parents and students enjoyed food, dancing, and fun at Community Night during Book Fair. The festival of international cultural displays, music, performances, and foods represented the many cultures that comprise our Potomac School community. We had displays and food from places as diverse as India, Pakistan, Haiti, Philippines, China, Korea, Kenya, Trinidad/Tobago, Panama, Ireland, Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. We also had religious displays for the Bahai and Jewish faiths.
This year, in addition to displays and food, several of our Korean families created a dance ensemble as well as a traditional Korean wedding. Mr. Jones also contributed with a collection of international children’s literature. -
Middle Eastern Studies
During the month of December, US students in the Modern Middle East course prepared a series of thematic panels on contemporary Middle Eastern issues. The panel discussions featured topics on Iran; Israeli- Palestinian Conflict; and Lebanese Elections; the gulf region and Iraq; Turkey and the Kurds; as well as Islam and Islamism.
These presentations, and the accompanying papers, were the final projects for the Modern Middle East class for the fall semester. The panels were organized around topics/themes that the students designated as areas of particular interest based on the materials they have been studying and events they have been tracking in the news. While focusing on contemporary issues, the students are supposed to ground their individual topics historically. This is the second year that students have organized these panel discussions on contemporary Middle Eastern issues for faculty and their peers.
The course, a senior elective, begins with the late Ottoman Empire and its collapse -- as its dissolution produced the vast majority of the countries that are normally considered “Middle Eastern” -- working towards the present.
Presentation topics included:
Iranian Nuclear Ambitions
Present Use of the '79 Revolution
Iranian Demographics
Lebanese Elections
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The Gulf Region and Iraq
Iraqi blogs
Dubai
The First Gulf War
Turkey and the Kurds
Islam and Islamism
Contemporary Islamic Thought
Islamist Movements -
Conversations about Gender
Faculty, parents, and students will have an opportunity to consider and discuss issues around gender, as we focus on this topic during the school year. At our seventh annual Intermediate School Diversity Day, November 13, students from area independent schools joined our own Intermediate School students in a discussion about media influences on gender identity.
The Potomac Educational Resource Committee (PERC) invited parents to a book discussion of Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes by Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown. The book provides insight into what our adolescent daughters are reading, watching, and listening to each day. Parents who attended enjoyed the opportunity to share ideas about the influence of the media on the self image of girls. PERC will focus on boys at its second book talk for parents later in the spring.
In the winter, we will continue our conversations about gender at the faculty professional development day, looking at gender roles in the classroom.
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Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC)
Again this year, Potomac student leaders participated in the annual Student Diversity Leadership Conference, sponsored by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) in Boston November 28 through December 1. Now in its 20th year, The People of Color Conference provides support and networking opportunities for teachers and administrators of color in independent schools as they pursue strategies for success and leadership.
Over 1,500 students participated in one of the largest student leadership conferences in NAIS history. Potomac students particularly enjoyed meeting other students from across the country and sharing their stories and experiences with one another. -
7th Grade Researchers Share Their Land Use Projects
How do humans interact with the environment through the use of land? How have political and economic conditions, resources, geographic locations, and cultures contributed to community cooperation and conflict? How do land use decisions get made? Who is impacted? Seventh grade students recently tackled these tough questions in the recent Land Use Project completed in the Social Studies classroom. Small groups of students chose topics, such as land development, mansionization, revitalization, preservation, and environmental issues. Delving into these topics, students researched specific issues and uncovered community conflicts and opportunities including issues involving noise pollution, affordable housing, and pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. Over the course of the project, students refined and learned important research skills, such as evaluating and citing sources, conducting interviews, and using evidence to support an argument. At the conclusion of the project, students presented their issues at the Land Use Open House, building community awareness.
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Diversity Day
Potomac hosted its 7th Intermediate School Diversity Day, November 13th, with independent schools from Northern Virginia and Maryland in a day-long discussion about media influences on gender identity. Intermediate School students participated with 65 7th and 8th grade students from Alexandria Country Day, Burgundy Farm, Congressional, Green Hedges, Green Acres, and Norwood. Potomac Upper School students served as facilitators.
Read More -
Book Fair International Family Night a Success
The Parent Diversity Committee extends thanks and gratitude to the Book Fair Committee for the invitation to host Potomac's first International Family Night. It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase a variety of cultures and customs within our school community. We also thank the many parents, families, and faculty who participated. The array of regional and international foods were delicious and the exhibits were informative and interactive with instruments, games, and beautiful native garments.
Click More for a gallery ofimages.
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Student-Led Advisory Lessons
This semester, the eighth grade homerooms are taking turns leading lessons and discussion topics among their peers during Advisory periods. Each of the eighth grade homerooms has been spending time developing their lesson plans since the start of the term. The Mrs. Hellman / Mrs. Ferrick homeroom kicked off this ambitious project by working in small groups of two or three. Each group attended the advisory period of a different 7th or 8th grade homeroom to present their own lessons on the topic of honesty. The lessons ranged from discussions about challenging situations, to acting out scenarios, to drawing comic strips that demonstrated honesty as an important value. We're looking forward to future lessons on courage, commitment, responsibility, and caring.
