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 Posted 05/14/2013 10:01AM Under the leadership of Surya B. '13, yesterday Casti held a fundraiser for the United States Wolf Refuge. Through generous purchases of jewelry and t-shirts, as well as donations from the community, the girls raised over $200. These funds will be used to expand wolf enclosures and to help pay for medical treatments. As a special treat, during lunch students had the opportunity to meet the head of the Wolf Refuge and two wolf ambassadors, Kasa and Takoda. Students lavished them with attention and love, and were sad to say good-bye to their new lupine friends. The Wolf Refuge may have found a few new volunteers! Thanks to everyone for supporting the wolves!
Posted 05/08/2013 10:51AM Congratulations to Anna C. '15, who recently appeared on the Marie Show on the Hallmark Channel to discuss her new novel, All That Is Red! Written during the summer between eighth and ninth grade, the book delves into the power of emotions. Amazon describes the novel as a "journey through the human condition": "Could you choose between feeling pain and not feeling anything, ever again? A girl is caught in a world where this choice is fiercely contested. In the cross-fire between the Red and White empires, the feeling and the unfeeling, each bent on the other's destruction, the girl must choose between emotion and oblivion, joining the ranks with the Reds as they fight to resist the Whites, but all the while struggling with her own desperate ambivalence." Amazon also sings Anna's praises: "Unsettling, engaging and surprisingly erudite, All That Is Red is a remarkably assured debut from an ascending literary star." Great job, Anna!
 Posted 05/07/2013 04:19PM Catapults, slings, conveyer belts, and trebuchets! That’s what it takes to meet the Tech Museum of Innovation’s annual Tech Challenge. This year, the "Magic Duo" (seventh graders Kaitlin R. and Zoë S.) and the "Galactic Girls" (seventh graders Georgia L., Katie M., and Ria S.) devoted countless hours over seven months to investigating, designing, and building a mechanism for packaging and launching a raw egg (simulating a container of delicate equipment) several feet in the air so that it landed on a target platform without breaking (simulating an asteroid where the equipment needed to be deposited). The Magic Duo designed and built a life-sized wooden catapult, while the Galactic Girls designed and build a trebuchet. They also developed a packaging solution that protected the raw egg flawlessly! The Tech Challenge provided an opportunity for these Middle School students to apply real-world techniques to solve an engineering problem. Congratulations to the Magic Duo and the Galactic Girls for their hard work, perseverance, and creativity!
Posted 05/01/2013 07:59AM Yesterday during lunch Casti was treated to a live performance on the Circle by Soosan Firooz, the first female Afghan rapper! A talented musician, she is also a dedicated voice for women's rights and political consciousness in Afghanistan, truly Standing Up and Speaking Out for women's rights. Amidst government threats against herself and her family, Soosan remains courageous and keeps singing-- hoping to be an inspiration to others to do the same. Over the past few days Soosan also performed at TEDx, was featured on MTV's "Rebel with a Cause," and received the Feminist Majority Foundation's Global Women's Rights Award in Palo Alto. To learn more of her amazing story, check out this video!
 Posted 05/06/2013 08:08AM Curious about how Scratch has been integrated into the Middle School curriculum? Want to learn about some of the fun projects in which the girls have participated this year? Click here to read a recent interview Computer Science teacher Ann Greyson gave to ScratchEd, a growing online community of educators working with the visual programming language. The best endorsement of a job well done? On a recent survey, students gave extremely positive feedback, stating that they wanted to use more of Scratch across the curriculum.
Posted 05/03/2013 08:07AM French II students "visited" Burkina Faso via Sarah Tkach's presentation on the West African country. Ms. Tkach shared her experience studying abroad and interning in a village library in Burkina Faso through a program run by Santa Clara University in conjunction with her professors' non-profit, Friends of African Village Libraries. The students enjoyed the chance to experience this Francophone country with all their senses: tasting peanuts and dried mangoes, listening to the music of balafons and drums, watching video clips of dances and city streets, touching beautiful printed pagnes (fabric skirts), and seeing pictures of life in the capital city, Ouagadougou, and in villages. The students gained a new understanding of the Francophone world, and a few adventurous girls were ready to grab their passports and fly over to see Burkina Faso for themselves!
Posted 05/02/2013 08:48AM On Tuesday the Castilleja Margarita Espinosa Library hosted Bay Area author and artist Gene Luen Yang. Gene is best known for his 2006 book, American Born Chinese, which was the first graphic novel to be a finalist for a National Book Award, and the first graphic novel to win the American Library Association's Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. While on campus Gene offered four different programs, ranging from a conversation about comics as a medium with the Design and Sculpture students, to a class on drawing and painting, to a discussion of modern East Asia, to a workshop with the seventh graders about creating short stories. For more information on Gene and his work visit his official site, or read these articles in Wired and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted 04/10/2013 08:08AM It is not every day that one can hear Castilleja students calling each other Madam Chair, Honorable, or Congresswoman. However, in order to help sophomore American Political System students achieve a deeper understanding of the legislative branch, the past two Extended Opportunity Periods (EOPs) have been dedicated to creating a mock Congress. To begin with, each “House” member authored a bill that contained a potential change in the areas of Castilleja’s scheduling, curriculum, or environmental friendliness. In smaller committees, the girls selected several bills from each category that would be debated and voted on during the EOP period. Some key issues included double-sided printing, reusable water bottles, and sports performance option requirements. After the members of the “House” had debated, voted, and posted their opinions of the bills on the “Castilleja Congressional Caucus” blogging website, the bills were sent to the “Senate” for approval and further amendments. The EOP that took place on April 3rd included much excitement as the Senate argued over bills and amendments. There was even a filibuster during which Harry Potter was read in order to delay voting. Now that the House and the Senate have agreed upon three bills, the bills will be sent to the Executive Branch. Nanci Kauffman (the “President”) will have 10 days to veto or sign the bills. Last year, Mrs. Kauffman instated the Class of 2014’s bill that resulted in the purchase and installment of new landfill, recycle, and compost bins around campus. Hopefully this year’s mock Congress will be able to have a similar impact on the school; however, whatever the outcome of the bills, Castilleja sophomores have benefitted from the unique chance to be part of a Congress and see how changes are made in this country.
 Posted 05/14/2013 10:01AM Under the leadership of Surya B. '13, yesterday Casti held a fundraiser for the United States Wolf Refuge. Through generous purchases of jewelry and t-shirts, as well as donations from the community, the girls raised over $200. These funds will be used to expand wolf enclosures and to help pay for medical treatments. As a special treat, during lunch students had the opportunity to meet the head of the Wolf Refuge and two wolf ambassadors, Kasa and Takoda. Students lavished them with attention and love, and were sad to say good-bye to their new lupine friends. The Wolf Refuge may have found a few new volunteers! Thanks to everyone for supporting the wolves!
Posted 05/03/2013 08:07AM French II students "visited" Burkina Faso via Sarah Tkach's presentation on the West African country. Ms. Tkach shared her experience studying abroad and interning in a village library in Burkina Faso through a program run by Santa Clara University in conjunction with her professors' non-profit, Friends of African Village Libraries. The students enjoyed the chance to experience this Francophone country with all their senses: tasting peanuts and dried mangoes, listening to the music of balafons and drums, watching video clips of dances and city streets, touching beautiful printed pagnes (fabric skirts), and seeing pictures of life in the capital city, Ouagadougou, and in villages. The students gained a new understanding of the Francophone world, and a few adventurous girls were ready to grab their passports and fly over to see Burkina Faso for themselves!
Posted 05/01/2013 07:59AM Yesterday during lunch Casti was treated to a live performance on the Circle by Soosan Firooz, the first female Afghan rapper! A talented musician, she is also a dedicated voice for women's rights and political consciousness in Afghanistan, truly Standing Up and Speaking Out for women's rights. Amidst government threats against herself and her family, Soosan remains courageous and keeps singing-- hoping to be an inspiration to others to do the same. Over the past few days Soosan also performed at TEDx, was featured on MTV's "Rebel with a Cause," and received the Feminist Majority Foundation's Global Women's Rights Award in Palo Alto. To learn more of her amazing story, check out this video!
Posted 04/23/2013 08:06AM To celebrate Earth Day, the Green Team hosted a series of fun and informative activities over the lunch hour. To whet people's appetite (both literally and figuratively), the Team provided a sampling of eco-friendly recipes for students to taste, from no-bake desserts to a bike-powered smoothie station! While noshing, students had a chance to check out some green gadgets, the products from the Green Team Extended Opportunity Period workshops (like solar panel robots and reused place mats), a Casti-colored red Tesla, and the energy bike that Green Team members made. To conclude festivities Ms. Shanks' design class put on a special "trashion" fashion show featuring creative costumes constructed from recycled materials. The show was presented at View360 this year, where the dresses were praised by Project Runway judge Nina Garcia. Also, in the evening the Green Team hosted a showing of King Corn, the 2007 documentary describing how the increasing production of corn has affected American society. By the end of the day everyone had a great deal of food for thought about the environment and how they could get involved!
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