features


Musical dream comes true for Blair senior

By Sophia Deng | Sept. 14, 2008, midnight | In Features »

French soldier Adam Carey lies on the floor, face calm, eyes closed and mouth shut. His body is limp and lifeless, around his corpse a battle rages. Suddenly the scene changes, Carey pops opens his eyes and quickly feels his way off the stage.


Jazz maverick striking a major chord in community

By Fran Djoukeng | Sept. 12, 2008, midnight | In Features »

For Marcus Johnson, Silver Spring is more than just a hometown. It is "the wind beneath my wings," says Johnson, who graduated from Blair in 1991, set up an award-winning music label a few blocks away and is a key component of Saturday's annual Silver Spring Jazz Festival.


McManus, Mary

By Katie Sint | July 3, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

Jasmine green tea, stacks of student papers and open textbooks surround Mary McManus on a covered desk in a hot computer room. McManus teaches a variety of classes ranging from Software Applications to Computer Programming in the Business and Computer Science Department.


Stallings, Franklin

By Fran Djoukeng | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

Swiveling in his chair and contemplating his typical weekend plans, Franklin Stallings chuckles and says, "Work." Since he was 16 years old, Stallings says, he can't remember a period in his life when he was not working.


Haigh, John

By Jenna Bushnell | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

John Haigh is a typical Blazer: he plays soccer constantly, loves the outdoors, wears American Eagle clothes and enjoys hanging out with his friends and jamming to alternative rock music. He could be just a typical teenager – which is why it is easy to forget that he's a teacher.


Jessell, Margaret

By Sophia Deng | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

Margaret Jessell may not be a teenager, but she still plays Truth/Dare, hosts murder-mystery parties and goes to R.E.M. concerts with her friends. A petite woman with piercing blue eyes, Jessell seems solemn and very serious. But in reality, she is the complete opposite. "Oh, I'm mean and uptight," she jokingly describes her personality. Then, cracking up at her joke, Jessell reveals the hidden goofy and outgoing side that her students, children and friends have the privilege to see.


Swaney, David

By Rose Wynn | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

The lights are dimmed as social studies teacher David Swaney sits among teenage students, below a stage decked with flashy costumes and dramatic actors. He sits as those around him do: with their violins propped steadily on their shoulders and their right arms flying wildly to create an energetic stream of music, as background for the torrent of song coming from the stage. Swaney plays with his fellow pit members, delighted to be engaging in one of his favorite pastimes while supporting his students' extracurricular interests.


Gonzalez, Dora

By Sonalee Rau | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

The foreign language academic support classroom is perpetually jam-packed during lunch as students filter in and out, looking for a teacher to help them. The environment seems chaotic – that is, until the commanding presence of Spanish teacher Dora Gonzalez enters the room. She hands each student the material that they need in a businesslike fashion. Then, noticing a former student complaining about his work, she addresses the classroom jocularly as her smile belies her seriousness. "If he had taken a class with me, he would have experienced a lot of fun," she says.


Murley, Kevin

By Lauren Kestner | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

A young man sits at a crowded desk in the Business and Entrepreneurship Office, flipping through pages of student reflections found in a lopsided pile of journals. Eyebrows furrowed in concentration, he reads a student's account of relatives faced with nearly insurmountable debt — a financial burden that could have easily been avoided, had they taken a business course. When the student begins to express her gratitude for the financial acumen she has developed through his business class, Kevin Murley's deep blue eyes brim with a newfound resolve to teach.


Davis, Celita

By Deepa Chellappa | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

The bustle in Celita Davis's classroom can be heard from down the hall. Groups of students fill the room, some chattering loudly in Spanish, others crowded around a computer watching YouTube clips. In a corner, four friends are busily engaged in a fierce game of Uno. Colorful pictures from a Pi Day activity cover the back wall, and inspirational posters adorn the front board. A box of calculators lies abandoned on a desk and caricatures replace math equations on the white board. The scene is not unusual except for the time of day—it is 5B lunch, and these students have voluntarily abandoned the cafeteria for the comfort of their math classroom, room 235.


Holt, John

By Jeremy Gradwohl | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

Technology teacher John Holt idly twirls a file in his hands as he sits on a mini-stool in a third-floor tech lab on the third floor overlooking the courtyard on a bright blue-skied afternoon in May, as he recalled how he had made his career choice and ended up at Blair. Having grown up right down the street from Blair, Holt is accustomed to such afternoons.


Darwish, Sawsan

By Poorna Natarajan | June 30, 2008, midnight | In Teacher Feature »

Wearing a black headscarf and clutching a rolling backpack that follows the short steps of her petite frame, language teacher Sawsan Darwish stands out at Blair. But in just a year, Darwish has managed to merge into the Blair community with her charismatic personality.


A world of difference

By Emily Hsiao | June 6, 2008, midnight | In Features »

After a long school day, a voice over the intercom announced a long-distance phone call for Joseph Bellino, a bewildered new English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher. The caller was a teacher in Arizona, who had subscribed to Silver International, Blair's international newspaper that Bellino created. She needed to share with Bellino an "amazing thing that had just happened."


A game to die for

By Lucas Alvarado-Farrar | June 2, 2008, midnight | In Features »

Knock, knock – the sound resonates throughout the house. A bewildered student picks up his crutches and hobbles out of bed to his front door. Cracking it open, he gazes out and turns pale. Seeing his killer before him, he quickly tries to slam the door, but is pushed to the ground. His attacker moves in and utters a single phrase. Junior Eliot Gold has just been killed.


Silverlogues: collected, posted, preserved

By Greg Kohn | May 20, 2008, midnight | In Features »

It is safe to predict the eventual fate of the 2008 Silverlogue yearbook, soon to be delivered to Blair students. It will end up a collector's item. One of those collectors is likely to be 1970 Blair graduate Donna Guiffre, who has three rooms brimming with high school yearbooks inside her antique-filled Germantown home. Her collection now amounts to more than 2,000 yearbooks from 48 states, including Silverlogues covering 50 of Blair's 79 years as a school.


BLAIR PAIR: the first date of '08

By | May 9, 2008, midnight | In Features »

A guitar "shredder" meets a programming girl who's got it together. Will Carr hand over the keys to her heart? Or will Hans fly solo?


The ideal idea

By Lucas Alvarado-Farrar | May 7, 2008, midnight | In Features »

Everyone has five questions that loom in the back of their head, swirling around in an abyss of wonder and confusion that they wish could just be answered. Five personalized interrogative phrases that end with a curly flip of the pen above a fat dot. Imagine for a moment that high school students could form an education around an attempt to wrap their minds around these conundrums, ultimately bringing more meaning to their education and lives outside of the classroom. This dream of seemingly utopian education is steadily becoming a reality for students who plan to attend the Ideal School next fall.


Cinco delicioso

By Mary Rodas | May 4, 2008, midnight | In Features »

Históricamente, el 5 de mayo del 1862, el general mexicano Ignacio Zaragoze derramó su corazón y aseguró una victoria para los mexicanos en la guerra francesa. No hay mejor manera de celebrar el logro del general (mientras satisfacer a la barriga vacía) que con comida auténtica mexicana. Entonces coge una tortilla, queso, salsa y verduras y ¡prepárate para cocinar un plato con los sabores de la victoria!


Silver spring

By Josie Callahan | May 2, 2008, midnight | In Features »

Now that the sun has decided to come out and play, there is no excuse to get dressed in the dark anymore. Spring is here, giving life to new styles and trends that will be sure to brighten up a muted winter wardrobe.


The road less traveled

By Brittany Allen | May 1, 2008, midnight | In Features »

While most of the other students in Blair's graduating class of 2008 spent their Septembers fretting about test scores and the perfect extracurricular recipe to secure admission at a top-tier four-year college, senior Sebastian Falcon kept his cool. More interesting to him than the "typical college" appeal of fraternities, quads or the nerve-wracking major-choosing process was the call of the kitchen.


Chiapanecas with children

By Ya Zhou | May 1, 2008, midnight | In Features »

The girls stand primly, watching the rowdy boys run up and down the stage stairs, hollering incessantly. Suddenly as if on cue, the girls form into two straight lines as the boys shuffle with less energy on stage right next door. Teacher Maya Maldonado-Weinstein brings back the boys' attention as she claps and hums a catchy melody, leading them in quick-paced, disciplined dance routine that sharply contrasts with the energy the 10 and 11-year-olds were previously exhibiting. With zeal, the young dance students start practice, preparing for two performances they will be putting on for their peers at Rolling Terrace Elementary School on May 2 and May 21.


Start your engines

By David Zheng | April 25, 2008, midnight | In Features »

The thundering cheers of a thousand high school students electrify a packed stadium as six robots zip around a track in the center of a scene described by junior participant Karen Luk as "hell in a stadium." The timer ticks down to zero, and the stadium explodes into an even louder uproar as the robots make their final lap and cross the finish line.


Much ado about Maya

By Josie Callahan | April 23, 2008, midnight | In Features »

Junior Maya Baum is on the verge of insanity. She is a mother, grieving over the loss of her child–in iambic pentameter. In front of a panel of judges, other contestants and an audience, Baum takes the stage of the New Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C. to reveal the tragic tale of Constance from Shakespeare's "King John" in a heartfelt monologue. After months of rehearsal and preparation, she is among 30 other talented high school students from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. competing in the District's National Shakespeare Competition.


Rapping and tapping to the top

By Alisa Lu | April 19, 2008, midnight | In Features »

At 7:20 – 10 minutes before the advertised show time – the auditorium is filled with chaos as sponsor Danyel Hartfield and students scramble around the dimly lit hall to ensure the night goes off without a hitch. Snippets of music emerge from the speakers and disappear a few seconds later. The spotlights sweep across the stage and illuminate the students frantically running from both sides of the curtain. Twenty-five minutes later, their efforts are rewarded as senior emcees Claire Kalala and Claudia Rivas walk across the stage to commence the 2008 Mr. and Ms. Blazer competition.


Dirty little secret

By Kiera Zitelman | April 17, 2008, midnight | In Features »

On top of a black and white vertically striped background that resembles prison bars, someone wrote in thick black marker: "He's been in PRISON for two years because of what I did. Nine more to go." Next to a picture of a dog, another person scribbled, "If I had to save ONE person in the world, I would ALWAYS choose HER."

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