Upper school teachers are so excited to have students back from spring break! It was wonderful to see everyone back at The Summit this morning, and we’ve enjoyed catching up with students in classes throughout the day. The delightful weather outside has only made this day even better.

Sixth grade students spent this morning putting the finishing touches on their graphic design project for International Women’s Day. I will print their posters out and put them on the wall in the history classroom for the other classes to see. Tomorrow they will present to their classmates what they learned about the woman they chose to research. For the remainder of the week, we’ll be returning to our study of Jacksonian America and learning about reform movements that took place in the mid-19th century. Tomorrow’s focus will be the autobiography of Frederick Douglass and his efforts for the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Seventh and eighth grade completed their quizzes of the geography of the 50 states and the first 16 presidents before break, so today they are jumping back in to completing their graphic design of one of those first 16 presidents. From here, we will move to Jacksonian America and the politics of that era, including South Carolina’s attempt at nullification and the Indian Removal Act of 1830. We will examine Supreme Court cases from this era to understand the constitutionality of actions taken during Jackson’s presidency.

High school left off at American empire in the 1890s, so we picked up there today before moving into the Progressive Era. The goal over the next few weeks is to progress through the Great War, the Great Depression, and World War II. Students are also in the midst of turning in their second project for this semester, with topics ranging from novel studies, to biographical sketches of influential Americans, to constitutional issues.