Need to Know for Friday, January 24

• Assessment week offered students the chance to demonstrate their growth, reflect on their learning thus far, and synthesize ideas and concepts. Plus there were bunnies, dogs, and fireplace time (via YouTube!). Thanks to all the generous donations of food, the kids were awash in delicious snacks and treats throughout the week. Students felt both nourished and nurtured!
• The Second Semester begins Tuesday, January 28. Semester reports will be available in the Parent and Student Portals on February 6. 
• Middle School Parent Partnership is offering a "Speed Geeking" opportunity to learn more about technology through three different quick workshops on February 5, 8-9am in the Middle School library. If you would be interested in offering some of your own questions, or if you would like to attend this session if it was offered in the evening, please fill out this form. All parents are welcome to attend, preK-12, to learn more about the following topics: 
  • How/why students use social media platforms. 
  • Privacy settings, how to set them, and why this matters. 
  • Family media contracts and conversations and a way to think about our digital media diets. 
• Midwinter Madness, the annual student-designed two week festival of fun with proceeds going to support a soon-to-be disclosed non-profit, kicks off next week. 
• The Semi-Formal, which is open to all Upper School students, is on Saturday, February 8 from 7-10 pm. This year's event, planned and hosted by Community Board, is at Skyrise Event Center. Students need to register to be able to attend.
• Act now to reserve your seats for the All School Musical, a rollicking adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which will be performed by February 26-March 1. 
• Check out what's new in the US Library on Book Love. 

Jelly Rec: Book Recommendations from Librarian Erika Jelinek

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Caseopia Tun has experienced little of the world beyond her small village in southern Mexico, where she spends her days scrubbing her foul grandpa's floors and being mistreated by her cousins and aunts. One day she opens a chest that has always stood locked in her grandpa's bedroom and finds a pile of bones that magically reconstitute to form the deposed Mayan god of death, Hun-Kame. Without getting into the nitty-gritty, suffice to say he whisks her away from her small world so that they can go on a capital Q Quest through roaring 1920s Mexico to regain his immortality and win his throne back from his treacherous twin brother. This is a gorgeous re-imagining of the Popul Vuh, a Mayan mythological text. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's lush prose is the kind of writing you want to sink your readerly teeth into, to read slowly so you can linger in this vividly imagined world. It has all of the elements of the classic hero's journey, a spunky heroine, and on point examinations of colorism in Mexico, the reverberating impacts of colonization, and misogyny. I loved it.

We're in This Together: Resources for Parenting Teens

• Inventors, Philosophers, Activists: 5 Exceptional Girls and the Parents who Raised Them via The Washington Post
• 10 Reasons Teens Have So Much Anxiety Today via Psychology Today (and by Amy Morin, our Big Speaker two years ago)
• A Parenting Expert Shares the Common Mistake that Psychologically Damages Kids via CNBC