In Focus @ GWA

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Email: info@gwa.com
Website: www.gwa.com
Phone: (678) 635-3800

• Upper School Awards: May 18, 6:30 p.m.
• MS/US End of the Year Parties: May 19
• Graduation: May 20, 9 a.m.
• Rising Senior Parent Meeting: May 24, 6 p.m.
• K5 Graduation: May 24, 7 p.m.
• Fifth Grade Graduation: May 25, 9 a.m.
• Last Day of School: May 25 (early dismissal for all grades/see below)
• Summer Camps: May 30 - July 27
• Order Lower School Supplies by June 8

We can't wait to celebrate with the Class of 2023! Join us for their commencement ceremony on Saturday. Seating opens at 8 a.m. and it is first come, first served.

Students in grades 8 - 11 will follow the schedule for exams shown above and 6th and 7th graders will not have exams, but will follow the same time schedule next week. All students in 6th - 11th will dismiss at 10 - 10:15 a.m. on Thursday. Lower school students will dismiss at 11-11:15 a.m. on Thursday. Buses will depart Mon. - Wed. (for LS only) at normal time and depart at 11:05 a.m. on Thursday (LS only). No aftercare on Thursday.

Our ninth-grade Biology class had the opportunity to perform a frog dissection. It was an amazing educational experience for our students as they were able to examine the internal anatomy of a preserved organism. We hope that this hands-on learning opportunity will inspire students to explore the world of biology further.

By Roger Lamadrid

As part of our unit on the scientific method, our class applied Newton’s First Law of Motion to design and construct marble tracks. Then we applied Newton’s Third Law of Motion to build egg drop containers.

We explored how the First Law of Motion (“an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by opposing forces”) is used by engineers as they design and build roller coasters and amusement rides. The class read several science articles and watched a couple of videos showing the First Law of Motion applied to common items and scenarios (such as with race car tracks, a quarterback throwing a pass to a receiver, a child learning how to roller skate).

Our marble tracks had to include four different elements such as inclines, declines, loops, and a feature to accelerate the marble somewhere along the track. We experimented with making tracks out of paper plates, index cards, and insulation tubing.

The second part of our project involved exploring how the Second Law of Motion (“for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”) applies to everyday objects (a tennis ball hitting a racquet, packaging a box for shipping, playing tug-of-war). Students brainstormed different ideas for protecting our eggs in some type of container by having an opposite force directed as we need, such as cushioning the egg inside a container.

Our egg drop containers had to be tested repeatedly and for our contest we simply dropped them from the top of the seventh-grade balcony overlooking the football field. Surprisingly, 12 out of the 15 egg drop containers survived the drop!

Please click the links below for summer work/reading and school supply lists by grade. This information may also be found on gwa.com on the lower, middle and upper school pages.

Lower School Summer Work & Supply Lists (see right side of webpage)

Middle School Summer Work

Middle Supply Lists

Upper School Summer Work

Upper School Supply Lists

Congratulations to Yearbook Advisor Liz Jones, Editor-in-Chief Aryn Gravitt, and the entire yearbook staff on an incredible book, Trouvaille, resumé 2023!

The seniors have dedicated the yearbook to David Arnold! Riley Wilson said, “Mr. David has seen our senior class grow into the people they are today. We see his kindness and selflessness and aspire to be someone as great of an example as he. You will find Mr. David behind a grill, walking the halls, or supporting the school’s athletics with a big smile on his face.”

“Ever since I came to George Walton he has always kept up with me and my family, asking how we are. I appreciate him because he never fails to put a smile on my face,” said senior Della Couch. With all of this said, they will never forget “Super Dave” and the impact he has made on their class.

Debbie Dyer has been chosen as the recipient of this year’s Brian Cole Award for Innovation! “Mrs. Dyer has perfected her craft,” said Liz Jones, “she loves her students so much and is deeply passionate about teaching them to love music. And every year she adds new ideas and techniques in her instruction.”

“Nothing challenged her teaching more than the year 2020 when she had to adapt to teaching music remotely in the spring and then returned to the classroom in the fall, wearing masks, teaching children wearing masks, and teaching music to around 300 children who were not allowed to sing! Using puppets, drums, etc. - she kept going, teaching music and inspiring the rest of us by making a seemingly impossible task seem easy.”

Thank you to Mrs. Dyer for always finding new and exciting ways to inspire the love of music right from the beginning in our lower school students. Your teaching will have lasting effects on generations of GWA alumni.

Click HERE to the view the Yearbook "Year in Review" video.

Our current sixth graders visited our fifth graders to share with them all the things that they should know as they prepare to enter middle school next year. The sixth-grade ambassadors created and presented a comprehensive slide show, answered questions, then guided the fifth graders on a tour of the middle school buildings. Great job, ambassadors!

Mrs. Dyer’s music students in third and fourth grade gave outstanding performances last week of “A Musical Collage.” They sang, played the recorder, played the bucket drums, and closed the show with folk dancing.

Best wishes to Mrs. Dyer as she retires and begins a new chapter. We are incredibly grateful for the legacy Mrs. Debbie Dyer has created at GWA, for her dedication to our students and for sharing the joy of music here for the last 23 years!

Avery Collin will continue her studies and tennis career at College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick. Congratulations and best wishes, Avery!

Evan Phillips made it official last week and will take his tennis career to the collegiate level at Newberry College in Newberry, SC. We wish you all the best at Newberry, Evan!

Please click HERE for more detailed information about this program (from an email sent to families last week by Femke Côté).

A big congratulations to our GWA alumni parents and their graduating Class of 2023 seniors! Pictured left to right: Will Atkinson, Porter Atkinson (’92), Emmie Carter, Matt Carter (’85), Ella Doster, Ben Doster (’82), Ida Harris (’97), Parks Harris.

Today's In Focus is proudly sponsored by Gray Orthodontics (www.grayorthodontics.com). Interested in advertising through our Corporate Partnership program? Contact Mike Elmankabady melmankabady@gwa.com or call 678-635-3812.