This weekend, Easthampton area residents are invited to Williston’s Lossone Rink to peruse and purchase quality, gently used children’s clothing, equipment, furniture, and more from over 120 consigners. The All-4-Kids sale is open to the public on Saturday, March 26, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 27, from noon to 3:00 p.m. There is no admission fee. On Sunday, many items will be sold at an additional 50% discount.

Williston alumna, tutor, and softball coach Molly Couch Ward ’82 has organized the semiannual All-4-Kids event since 2003. The two-day consignment sale traditionally donates a portion of the profits to local and regional charities. Unsold items are given to Cradles to Crayons, a children’s charity in Boston.

The sale had previously used the parish hall at St. Philip’s Church, but Molly says they were “busting at the seams there so we have been looking for a new and bigger location for a couple of years now.” What started as a small church fundraiser has grown into a “huge ministry.” She says, “It’s a win-win situation for everybody. People enjoy buying quality items and recycling at the same time.”

For more information about the sale, email all4kids128@yahoo.com.

Williston’s admission decisions went live today, via email and official letters to applicants congratulating them on their acceptance to The Williston Northampton School. The Admission Office reviewed a record number of applications this year, and Director of Admission Ann Pickrell predicts that the applications will translate into a strong student community for the 2011-12 school year. “Our applicant pool this year was filled with terrific students interested in a variety of opportunities available at Williston. The admission committee has offered enrollment to 39% of those applying. We look forward to welcoming new students to our Second Visit Days in April.”

Applicants were drawn to Williston’s strong academic program, its location in the Pioneer Valley, and its Williston⁺ Program, which brings the outstanding educational, cultural, and artistic resources of the area onto campus and into the curriculum, and our fantastic offerings in athletics and the arts.

In addition to an email and a letter, accepted students were congratulated by the entire student body and new Head of School Robert W. Hill III in a special video produced by Williston’s Film Club.

“Language is life,” says French teacher Sue Michalski, “and I believe that language in the classroom should be alive as well.” With that goal in mind, all of her French classes, from French I through AP French, are conducted entirely in French. She notes that many of her students speak to her in French even outside of class, and says that in some cases, “I have never heard their voices in English.” Michalski graduated with highest departmental honors from Dartmouth College and taught French at Dartmouth with John Rassias and at the Walnut Hill School before coming to Williston in 1999.

Sue Michalski brings high energy to her students

In order to help her students learn intensely and wholeheartedly, Michalski incorporates music into various projects throughout the French curriculum. “Music is key for memory and repetition,” she points out. “A great song is fun, and gets into your head. The grammar also gets in there, often without the students realizing it.” Her AP French students still sing the “silly” yet usefully songs they learned in earlier classes.

Michalski’s French IV: Conversation class recently produced music videos for popular songs through which they had learned important grammar points. The requirements of the project were to memorize the song, show all students singing equally, and visually represent an understanding of the song’s message. Following the submission of the students’ music videos, the class then watched the musician’s video and compared the two approaches.

The song in the video below (read the lyrics and translation) is about what the singers would do if they were to die tomorrow: the refrain answers the question with, “I would love you.” Michalski points out that studying popular songs also gives a glimpse of Francophone culture (this song is sung by a Frenchman, Pascal Obispo, and a Canadian woman, Natasha St. Pierre). The students who produced this video are Nick Halbach ’11, Addison Morse ’12, Vicky Vazquez ’11, and Sarah Wilkie ’12.

In another musical project, the students wrote their own songs. They were required to include a certain number of grammar points and vocabulary words, to have stanzas and a refrain, and then to set the words to music. “Writing a song has students playing with language, incorporating vocabulary and structures we have studied, and using technology,” Michalski says. “Creating a tangible final project, ‘their’ song, is a great reward as well.”

One group (Debbie Andres ’11, Vicky Vazquez, and Sarah Wilkie) wrote a song called “Jour” (Day) to the music of Prince’s “Kiss.” Read the lyrics or listen to the song (left click to play or right click to download their song). Here is an excerpt of the refrain:

Michalski is happy to say that her students “love trying new and fun things,” and she uses this positive energy to help them progress toward fluency in French. She says, “Seeing them do something they never thought they could do, but I always knew they could—it’s a beautiful thing.”

Sarah Hubbard ’12 recently won the national tune-writing contest sponsored by Strings Without Boundaries. She was by far the youngest of four winners. Certainly a rising star in the musical world, Sarah has placed in the top three in every fiddle contest she has ever entered as a young adult. She was the first place winner of the Blandford Fiddle Contest in 2009 and 2010, and she won second place in the Ethnic Division at the 31st Annual Lowell Fiddle and Banjo Festival in September 2010. She also had the opportunity to perform at Tanglewood with noted clarinetist Paul Green.

Sarah performs regularly with a number of groups. She is a soloist with the Pioneer Valley Fiddlers, a local intergenerational group; she is the Klezmer violinist for Paul Green and Friends; she is a first violinist with the Springfield Youth Orchestra; and she was featured at a master class with Rachel Barton Pine, performing Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor. She is also concert mistress of The Williston Northampton School’s Chamber Orchestra, recently performing the Barber Concerto.

Sarah says she is committed to mastering and performing a variety of music styles for strings. Her musical interests and repertoire include jazz violin, gypsy jazz swing, Klezmer, blues, classical, electric and a wide variety of fiddle styles including New England, Ottawa Valley, Cape Breton, Irish, Texas Swing, bluegrass, old-time, and Metis, a style developed by Canadian Native Peoples.

Watch a short video of Sarah performing at a Williston assembly.