By Jeni Johnson
Middle School English Teacher
On February 23, three Middle School students represented St. Margaret’s at the Orange County Spelling Bee semifinals.  Advancing to the Orange County bee were St. Margaret’s Middle School Spelling Bee first-place winner Kelly Burk, grade 7; second-place winner Pauline Herbert-Whiting, grade 6; and third-place winner Derek Hoare, grade 8, whose claim to fame is successfully spelling of schadenfreude in front a packed Middle School audience.
During the semifinals, our three St. Margaret’s students joined 126 other Orange County students at Orange County’s Department of Education for …

By Stephanie Windes
Middle School Mathematics Teacher
On February 21, a team of St. Margaret’s students competed in the Orange County Chapter Competition of Mathcounts, held at the University of California, Irvine. Our team of three included David Freed, grade 8; Derek Hoare, grade 8; and Brian Lee, grade 7.
The team members qualified to represent St. Margaret’s during a competition held last December, and they prepared for Mathcounts during weekly math club meetings held at lunchtime.
There were 131 participants in the competition, but St. Margaret’s was one of only three private schools …

By Nathan Wheeler
Upper School Theater Arts Teacher
Last Friday night, 55 Upper School students gathered in the Tartan Center for a pizza dinner to start the first 24-Hour Play Festival at St. Margaret’s.
Seven groups, each comprised of one playwright, one director, three or four actors and one stage manager, had one day to write, rehearse and perform a fully memorized 10-minute play for a live audience. Before the performance, groups were allowed approximately 20 minutes in the costume shop with Costume Mistress Blakely Collier, grade 10, and another 20 minutes in …

Sixth Annual Coffee House Cabaret Overview
On February 21, Sillers Hall morphed into a French-style coffeehouse, complete with low and high tables draped in black fabric, ornamented with roses and lit by candles. The audience selected beverages and snacks, and settled in to watch one of two performances of the sixth annual Coffee House Cabaret. On stage, students displayed talent in areas ranging from dramatic interpretation to interpretive dance.
More than 40 performers were auditioned and 29 acts were selected. During a 15-minute intermission, the audience was invited to view artwork …

Artwork crafted by St. Margaret’s students in their creative arts courses, ranging from fired clay vessels to black and white photography to T-shirts, is currently exhibited on the second floor of the Gateway Building through mid-March, in the K–12 Student Art Show. A wide range of artwork from all grade levels reveals how students are able to use creative tools to express themselves and give shape to their inspiration in many different formats.
The bustling audience for the show’s opening reception last week was shoulder-to-shoulder as attendees viewed and discussed the …

Most Tartans will remember when St. Margaret’s students Ali Solon, grade 10, and Desi Staples, grade 12, performed a duet during last month’s all-school football State Championship celebration. Coach Harry Welch introduced them as “two St. Margaret’s angels.” The Honorable San Juan Capistrano Mayor Mark Nielsen, was in attendance that day, and he was so moved by their performance that he invited Ms. Solon and Ms. Staples to perform at the City’s annual State of the City Breakfast on Thursday at El Adobe Restaurant, in San Juan Capistrano.
More than 200 …

St. Margaret’s Library Online Resources
The St. Margaret’s Library provides access to online resources you can use even from home. Passwords provided by St. Margaret’s allow you to use the Encyclopedia Britannica; JSTOR, a nonprofit source for scholarly articles; Maps101; Literature Resource Center, which provides literary criticism, reviews and biographical information on writers; and many more sites that you can browse at your leisure.
To obtain passwords, click here and select LOWER SCHOOL RESOURCES, MIDDLE SCHOOL RESOURCES, or UPPER SCHOOL RESOURCES. Students can use their St. Margaret’s log-in to link to PASSWORDS …

Last week at St. Margaret’s, sixth-grade developing artists worked together to write, produce and present shows staring Bauhaus-inspired puppets. The puppet shows were performed against backdrops the students had created together in groups.
Students selected themes for their shows, including the importance of being mindful of one’s action, working hard and never giving up, and the harmful effects of lying and stealing.
Mr. Josh Friedman, Middle School art teacher, explains the process that led to the performances: “For artistic inspiration, we looked at paintings and puppets created by artist Paul Klee, a …

This week during Middle School and Upper School Chapel, Mr. Ryan Dahlem, Director of Admission and Financial Aid at St. Margaret’s, spoke about his recent Himalayan climbing expedition to Cho Oyu.
Mr. Dahlem and his father have traveled to Africa, Alaska, Russia, Argentina and Antarctica, and together they have climbed five of the “seven summits,” the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. This recent excursion took them (and 30,000 pounds of equipment) through Nepal and into Tibet. They went 46 days without running water, toilets, or home-cooked meals, to …

The St. Margaret’s Tartan Football Team, along with Headmaster Marcus Hurlbut and Head Coach Harry Welch, were honored with a Certificate of Recognition from the City of San Juan Capistrano on January 20, during a meeting of the City Council.
Mayor Mark Nielsen and the City Council members invited the entire team to receive the certificate in recognition of their recent triumphant season that included winning both the East Valley Section CIF Championship and the inaugural Small Schools CIF State Bowl Championship.
At the open City Council meeting, the seats were filled …