2025 END TERM OFFERINGS
A Time to Explore
Hear from students about how Endterm expands the horizons of what they are interested in and passionate about. Endterm is a time to explore new disciplines, get outside, do hands-on work, and mix with different ages to explore an interdisciplinary subject or project.
Read below to learn about some of the topics have been over the years.
In The Mix
Good art transcends boundaries and travels, collecting materials as it goes. What happens when you paint on a stone or make a sculpture from a book? How does dropping a dragon onto the Minefield ignite a story? What happens when you freeze a magical ice cave into a poem? Where might your words find new and unexpected homes and forms? This Endterm is all about finding out what happens when you mix different media and allow your ideas to take new and different shapes. We will spend our days in long studio and writing blocks, and take trips off campus to the beach, museums and public spaces for inspiration and to gather materials. You will leave this end term with a collection of mixed media pieces that only you could have generated. Come breathe deep, think beyond borders, and create art.
Read Books & Reimagine the Library
In this Endterm, students will take an active role in transforming the Waring library into a more inviting, functional, and inspiring space for reading and study. Through hands-on organization, creative problem-solving, and visits to libraries and bookstores on the North Shore and in Boston, students will gain insight into library science, spatial design, and the role of reading in community spaces.
Each day, we will dedicate time to reading for pleasure. We will experiment with slow reading techniques, including keeping a reading journal or commonplace book. Students will learn about “reader’s advisory” (the art of recommending books) and practice sharing books they love with each other. Together we will explore what makes an ideal reading experience and environment. Students will put their ideas into practice by rearranging library furniture to create cozy nooks and quiet corners while keeping flexible seating for class use. We will study how librarians choose books for their libraries, and students will have the opportunity to curate and enhance the Waring library collection. By the end of this endterm, we will have not only reimagined a physical space but also deepened our reading habits and appreciation for the power of books.
Sew Waring
Welcome fashionistas! Do you love creating? Do you love fabrics? Do you love clothes? Do you love anything handmade? We are going back in time and making our own clothes, modifying existing outfits to reuse them, making what we SEW desire buying. Have a look at your current outfit, wouldn’t it be cool if you had made it yourself? Think of that perfect pair of pants that you tried on…if only they had been…shorter, longer, bigger here, smaller there… then, you would have bought them! Why buy perfection when you can make perfection? How about gloves, bags, satchels, towels, napkins? The list goes on… If you can imagine it made out of fabric, then you can sew it. Sew Waring: 3 weeks, 3 patterns, off campus excursions, infinite items to add to your creative, personal, nobody-else-owns-it collection! Sewing machine needed. Please bring your own, if possible, or contact Anna Marie if you need to borrow one.
Primitive Ceramic Techniques & Storytelling
In this Endterm course, we will explore ancient ceramic techniques, focusing on the creation and firing of ceremonial objects and masks.These pieces will feature illustrations depicting scenes from daily life, reminiscent of early visual storytelling, with little to no use of glaze.
Our work will be informed by research into how ancient potters illustrated narratives on ceramics, offering insight into what could be considered the “comics” of the past. Each participant will develop their own story and apply it to the surface of a bisque-fired piece.
Technically, we will experiment with natural pigments, oxides, and organic materials to create color effects on bisque. Firing will be done in both a traditional kiln and small open-air brick structures, which are designed to generate flames for smaller objects. Additionally, we will use wax to fix the black smoke onto the surfaces, enhancing the depth and contrast of our designs.
We will take advantage of Waring’s pottery studio and adjacent classroom. We also plan to meet with artists and to visit museums and studios. Students will be asked to do homework through small research projects, sketches, and writings. We are excited to dive into the study of this ancient and beautiful process and, with a little luck and know-how, to create successfully a few pieces to take home.
There are as many different kinds of feminists as there are humans; our Endterm welcomes all genders, ages and starting points. We will spend time reading, researching, discussing and reflecting on topics derived from the interests of the group. We will take field trips, watch films and talks, listen to music, move, make art and co-create our time together. Each day will involve some study, discussion, movement, activities and practices. You will come away from this Endterm with a clearer understanding of why “we should all be feminists,” how the patriarchal system we have inherited has shaped the society we live in, and some tools and practices to heal, be a better friend, partner, and community member.
Dog Days of Waring
In this pawsitively adorable Endterm, we will learn about dog history and mythology around the world, learn about working dogs, make dog portraits, learn about raising a puppy as well as exploring the age-old question: can you teach an old dog new tricks? We will bring in local dog trainers to learn from them as well as studying various training and obedience techniques. We will take field trips to Cape Ann Animal Aid to learn about the particular needs of shelter dogs and healing animal trauma, The Service Dog Project to learn how they train Great Dane Puppies to be service animals, and attend a NH DogShow to see the best trainers and companions compete. We will also visit a local veterinarian to learn about dog health and care. The Waring community is full of dogs we can showcase and offer our love to. Our Endterm will finish with, you guessed it, a dog show. Doggone it, you will love this Endterm!
As We Like It in the Forest
Join us as we explore one of Shakespeare’s most beloved romantic comedies. As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by The Bard exploring love, identity, gender, sexuality, and fighting against injustice. Through the forest we will go to discover the mischief, beauty, and adventure that is afoot there! Our intrepid forest exploration will invite various modes of expression including writing, art, and music. We shall frolic! We shall discover ourselves in nature! We shall wear bug spray! We shall engage with forest transcendence to nurture the artist inside We shall listen to the Waldweben (Forest Murmurs) from Wagner’s Siegfried. Our field trips will take us to multiple nearby forests, nature preserves, and other beautiful places. We will even have the chance to feed birds from our very hands! Our forest adventures will culminate in an outdoor abridged production of As You Like It featuring props, costumes, set pieces, and music all inspired by our forest escapades. And probably you could bring your dog.
The Endterm Edit: Documenting the Daily Duties of the Waring Wolfpack
Action! In this Endterm, we will be exploring the art of documentaries through researching and experiencing the medium and creating your own documentaries! We will seek out different ways to tell stories about slices of life at Waring, both through the medium of the documentary and through journaling, storyboarding, etc. We will explore different ways to deliver creative and robust stories. We will watch documentaries to accumulate knowledge about the medium and then storyboard a unique idea for a documentary. Then, YOU will become a documentarian and in groups create your own projects following an aspect of Waring life. Groups of three students will interview, film, and edit their own documentary to present at the culmination of Endterm. Teams may film a documentary about another Endterm, following their group and interviewing/filming when possible. What Waring story will you tell?
Everything We Do Is Business!
We grossed two million dollars this year! Yippee!! But the net was only ten thousand dollars…wait, what does that mean? We are excited to take a deep dive into the world of business with you. When you stop and look around, everything in front of us stems from business in some way, shape or form. What is the role of business in society? What types of organizations are out there and what are their objectives? We will look at how both internal and external factors help to determine a business’s growth. We’ll explore aspects such as the everyday economic environment and fostering a business’ culture. Who are the stakeholders? What’s my role? Who is making the decisions? Who is making the money? We will meet, talk and work with business owners, CEO’s, an Executive Director of a foundation, and employees of companies, who ultimately make the business a successful one.
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates
Symbiosis
Braiding together strands of poetry, biology, artisanship, and adventure, we will explore what it means to live with others. How do we relate to one another in our human communities? How do our choices connect to our biological community? Despite the fact that an average American spends over 7 hours on screens each day, we are still biological creatures, eating the most delicious of our fellow travelers (and trying not to get eaten). However our culture has invented walls – both literal and psychological – between humans and our ecosystems. We’ve also built walls between ourselves, increasingly “connecting” via screens, and in lieu of meaningful connection, seeking joy in consumer goods. We’ll avoid screens. We aim instead for collaborative work, play, and adventure, and learning from direct experience. We will cook and bake bread and sit together to eat. We’ll head off campus on foot and by bike, connecting with each other, the land, waters, and environment around us. Expect some DIY projects, building hands on skills, tea and poetry, reading science, singing the blues, long adventurous walks, excellent… [Authors’ note: apologies for the hasty ending, but we had to escape our screens.]
