High School
Melissa Knowles
High School Math Teacher (she / her)
Melissa Knowles joins Odyssey this year as High School Math teacher. She has been teaching and tutoring high school and college math for the last nine years. Melissa graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with a B.A. in Biology and has been in the Asheville area for almost twenty years. She prizes an ability to develop problem-solving skills in the math classroom so as to tackle “real world” applications. She believes that every math student can be successful with the right guidance and encouragement. Outside of the classroom you can find Melissa gardening, bird watching, nature journaling, and cooking.
Student Film
This animated short exploring and exposing teen anxiety was created during our two week minimester in 2018. It is the product of the collaboration between 9 high school students, including 9th-12th grade students.
Celestial Soiree
Join Odyssey School parents and many others from the greater Asheville community as we celebrate spring together in a fundraiser and silent auction that is Out of this World! Heavy hors d’oeuvres, cash bar, live entertainment, and more rounds out this galactic party.
Special thanks to The Collider for providing a beautiful, downtown sunset view!
Come See HS Drama Students in their Production of “The Odyssey”!
Are monsters real? Join us Sunday, Jan 20th at Fractal’s Coffee Shop in West Asheville for this original, modern adaptation of Homer’s epic tale of harrowing adventure. Experience what Odyssey High School students think are today’s “monsters” and glean from their wisdom on how to reckon with them.
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Ancient Greek activities, student art exhibit and installation, interaction with Greek gods, satyrs, an oracle, Greek-inspired food available for purchase
7:00 – 8:00 pm
Performance!
This play is a fundraiser to launch a new initiative to create international service learning projects for high school students on Crete, Greece!
Heartfelt gratitude to our sponsors: Fractals, Hadaya, and our own radiant Jeannie Adair’s Adair Design! All ticket proceeds and 20% of food and beverage purchases go toward the Crete initiative.
Buy tickets online or see Alyssa in the Main Office.
High School Vocalists
Listen to this incredible piece of music performed by The Fates (pictured below), an group of high school vocalists from 2019.
Journey Week
In high school, Journey week is a time for students to acclimate to Odyssey’s unique style of integral and experiential education. We postpone academic classes for this week in order to build community through team-building activities, outdoor adventures, and deep reflection. In addition, journey week serves as an orientation for students. The week culminates in an overnight adventure trip that helps bond our community together and sets the high school up for a strong academic year. This year, the high school is traveling to Tennessee to go white water rafting on the Nolichucky River.
OCDC Performance of “Somebody / Nobody”
The Odyssey Creative Drama Collective are hard at work rehearsing the upcoming comedic play, Somebody/Nobody by Jane Martin. Come see the final product on Friday, April 27 at 7:30, Saturday, April 28 at 1:30 and 7:30 and also Sunday, April 29 at 2:30!
An intimate play setting has been created in Odyssey’s lower level, so seating is limited. Reservations are highly suggested. Please contact Melanie Wester for reservations!
This show is recommended for middle school ages and up.
Tickets are $12.00 for ages 22 and over, and $10.00 for ages 21 and under.
Civic Engagement: Student Protests
Student organizers, Bella Wells-Fried, 10th, and Kaiya Nilsson, 9th, led Odyssey 4th-12th grade students and area schools Hangar Hall and French Broad Academy, in a march from campus to Pack Square on Friday, April 20th. There they met with students from Asheville High, Asheville Middle, and Carolina Day School to gather in a peaceful protest for gun law reform.
When presented with the request to participate in this nationwide walk out, faculty and administration guided students through this learning experience in civic engagement. Students learned how to acquire permits for protest, wrote and distributed press releases, researched legislation, researched and brainstormed messaging for protest signs, and prepared for public speaking. They also sent a representative to our faculty meeting to receive feedback about how younger students, parents, and teachers will experience this day – incorporating empathy into the design-thinking process. One student’s Independent Research Project on the history of protest music this past fall prepared him well for his contribution that day.
Odyssey’s administration and faculty also spent class and meeting time preparing students to explore their viewpoints from multiple perspectives and aimed to create a safe space for differences in values and beliefs. Students who chose not to protest worked on studying legislation that inspired them and other strategies of civic engagement in democracy.
News Coverage of Asheville’s Student Protest
Virtual Design at Odyssey
We are excited to welcome local virtual reality firm Better Than Unicorns to our campus this month!
4th-12th Grade students will get an introduction to virtual design tools like Tilt Brush, a program that allows students to paint with fire, snow, smoke, and other incredible materials. Another program, developed for architectural design, will allow students to build and construct. This first demonstration aims to prepare students to engage real creativity and solutions in virtual spaces.
As virtual reality technology advances so does its potential application. In education, having a virtual reality resource means there are practically limitless methods for instruction. Better Than Unicorns, a firm which specializes in such immersive experiences, is offering students at Odyssey School a chance to explore art and design beyond any physical limitations.
Elders Day
We are excited to welcome and celebrate Odyssey elders on October 27th! This Fall Festival is a coming together of generations as we invite grandparents, or another special elder in our students’ lives, to join us in celebrating the coming autumn. Together, we find the beauty in changing leaves, cooler weather, longer nights, and the wisdom that follows a full spring and summer.
Elders will get to experience Integral Education, visit classrooms, enjoy a picnic lunch, and celebrate the changing of the seasons with us!
Garden Party
You are invited to join us on Saturday, September 30th, from 12:00-5:00! This party is brought to you by Odyssey’s Garden Committee, led by Chelsea Potter and Carrie Chisholm, and is sure to be a great time had by all.
