The International Insider » learning

Brightening Futures

Angela Salmos — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:19:29 +0000

Was it your teacher who asked you, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Was it your Aunt? Was it your mom or dad? Is it possible that you still don’t know what you want to do? What if a friendly dragon came by and asked you now? On March 16th our school held a Career Day conference for the first time. Many successful people came out to talk about the importance of hard work, success, and dedication.

Professionally dressed students came – wide-eyed – into their transformed classrooms and school offices to hear from an impressive variety of adults, working in an equally varied number of fields.

“Career Day really opened my mind to what I want to be when I get older,” said junior Samantha DiMarco, who wasn’t alone in heralding the event’s successes. “I didn’t expect to see enthusiasm from our junior and senior students. From hats to heels and dresses to jackets, they really went all out and it made us all very proud,” said Parent Coordinator Annette Lentini.

Students were able to sample life and professional lessons from a dizzying array of presenters from entertainment executives to world renown chefs. Some student favorites included freelance multi-lingual translator, Jisu Kim, CFO Matt Signore from Warner Music Group, and Financial Planner John Ross.

Everyone wants to be successful when they get older, and good grades are a big part of achieving that goal. Many jobs today need more than a college diploma. Many seek out students who are doing significant post graduate work.

“At this age students usually don’t care or don’t know what they want to be at the moment, but when you get older you have to keep in mind to love your job,” said John Ross an Agency Sales Director, Financial Planner.

Overall, the day was a real outside-the-box learning experience for everyone, and a real boon for our school.

Sophomores Get to Know Health

Celeste Chow and Jamie Miller — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:23:00 +0000

Here at our school bake sales and junk food are forbidden for health reasons but yet students are not taught healthy eating habits. Health class is not taught here or at many New York City schools.

Since health class is not offered, the SPARK, Ms. Hattie Slaughter, at our school decided to incorporates health into advisory. SPARK is a program that offers individual and group assistance on positive alternatives. Even though Ms. Slaughter teaches the sophomore advisories with regular health lessons, it is not the same as having an actual health class.

According the Department of Education, health class is not mandated for students to take as a specific class, which is why we learn health class through advisory.

Health class should be mandated to take because having health class through other classes is not always beneficial. By not having a specific class dedicated to health it is not guaranteed that you will have a health lesson everyday and it is important for students to learn about health.

“Health class is to inform students on their mental and physical health and to teach good eating and exercise habits. It is also to teach the importance of health. By teaching health poor nutrition, and drug and alcohol awareness are prevented,” said Ms. Slaughter.

According to Ms Pastena only one health credit is required to graduate, so the lessons that would be taught in a traditional health class are taught throughout the four years of advisory.

“Learning about health class in advisory is important because we get to learn about how to live a longer healthy life and the bad effects of drugs,” said sophomore Ashley Heyne.

Ms. Slaughter is not always available to teach health lessons, which is why health should be part of our curriculum. Without a health class students don’t learn proper things they need to know for their everyday teen life.

The few Advisors who are teaching about health are helping their students to become more aware of their bodies. Ms. Orlando’s advisory is currently focusing on alcoholism and drug abuse.

“I think it’s important for students to learn about health because it helps them become aware of their bodies, as well as the poor influences in society,” said English teacher Melissa Orlando.

According to Ms. Pepe, health is an important subject that covers everything from nutrition to issues that teens face in today. It may help students to talk about topics that they may not be able to discuss with their parents or friends. It also can help in knowing the facts on certain subjects instead of guessing.

Students Take Part in Their Own Memoir

Matea Kulusic — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:19:44 +0000

Everyone has a story. It’s what makes a person different from everyone else; it’s their identity. In 2003, a program called “StoryCorps” was started, where people can go and record their stories and preserve them at the Library of Congress. Eight students from our school have volunteered as part of the memoir project in their English classes to record their stories.

“We decided as a department to read memoirs this year, but we wanted the students to choose which memoir to read. So we gave them a list, and they selected and formed book clubs, which met weekly to analyze the plot,” said English teacher Mrs. Nancy Kaplan.

The students also wrote their own stories detailing their own experiences and life stories. According to Kaplan, the purpose of starting this memoir project is to read and write about one’s life.

The students paired up, and recorded their stories in a booth in downtown Manhattan.

“By listening and connecting with each other, it makes the experience of sharing stories a lot more enjoyable than if people went one at a time to record. That is why we encourage people to go into the recording booth and record their stories together,” said Lucy Zhou from the communications department at StoryCorps.

After the recording, the people at StoryCorps choose which stories they will broadcast on NPR’s Morning Edition and the rest are sent to the Library of Congress to be preserved.

This project allows every one who shares their story a part to be a part of our nation’s history. This project makes people more than just a silent nameless face in the crowd, it gives them a voice. This is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind.

“The mission of StoryCorps is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our time. As a public service, we try to offer the interview experience to as many people as possible in order to showcase the richness and diversity of the American people,” said Zhou.

In a way, this enhances our democracy by giving everyone a voice and a chance to be a part of our nation’s history. It is truly amazing to know that by doing something as simple as going into a recording booth can make our stories become a part of our nation’s history and something for future generations to remember us by.

The eight volunteers are: Elliot Santiago, Paul Casella, Amber Figerio, Christopher Frank, Brianna Recinos, Alex Lopes, Djenne Jean-Louis, and Radwa Achmed. The first four students are recording their stories on Jan. 16, 2010, and the rest are recording on Jan. 30, 2010 in Manhattan.

Students on Ice!

Aleksandra Makowska and Simit Christian — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:17:09 +0000

Sitting in a classroom always gets boring sooner or later. For two weeks, we had the chance to switch our typical classmates for penguins, seals, ice, and more penguins as we made our way to Antarctica, which is called the “Greatest classroom on Earth.”

Students on Ice (SOI), which has given Antarctica this title, is an organization that organizes educational expeditions for students each year to the Arctic and Antarctic.

“The expedition’s education program has three main goals. The first goal is to promote learning about polar fundamentals. The second goal is to engage people to consider environmental problems and solutions. The third goal is to encourage everyone to take responsibility, join generation G, and make change,” said Tim Straka, Education Director of SOI.

Our expedition to Antarctica included not only 65 students from around the world, but also a group of 25 SOI staff, veteran Antarctic researchers, journalists, and the ship crew. All of these people were happy to tell the students everything they knew and share their experiences, while the setting of their stories lay right outside the ship’s window.

The first days onboard weren’t too great. When the ship’s lounge was filled with people seasick, napping near trash-cans, moaning, and cursing the ocean, we knew we were crossing the Drake Passage to reach the Antarctic continent. Geologist Fred Roots attempted to distract us by telling us all about the land around us, and the sea that covered it up. He explained that the currents circled Antarctica clockwise and were then squeezed between South America and Antarctica, forming the infamous Drake Passage. Later, the students and staff walked the decks with barf bags in their hands all while pointing to a distant, exclaiming ‘breaching whale, over there!’

“I got the pictures of the humpback whales jumping out of the water all three times, this must be pretty rare. I am lucky I had my camera with me at the right moment,” said Chicago SOI participant Alex Brewer.

The Antarctic ornithologist Santiago Imberti pointed to penguins, discussing their mating habits, life spans, biology, and even the color of their poop. All the while, we were surrounded by thousands of the penguins on a tiny Antarctic Island. Completely unafraid of humans, they wobbled along in a straight line until they reached a cliff to the shore. They stood around for a long while until one impatient penguin shoved another into the dangerous waters. Then, the rest followed.

The polar expert Olle Carlsson explained why the penguins were so hesitant in their dives into the water, the leopard seal. The leopard seal would, if successful in its hunt, play a game of cat- and- mouse with the penguin. We crossed our fingers that no such seal would appear in the water, yet we oooh-ed and aaah-ed when we saw an adorable elephant seal sleeping on shore and scratching its belly and back. This scratching, Carlsson explained, was called molting, the shedding of skin, and we sympathized with the seal. At another island, we even saw seven of them piled between two rocks, portraying their liking for body contact. The cold ice beneath them did not seem to bother them, despite their lack of fur or feathers.

“Isn’t that amazing,” Carlsson always said in his Swedish accent after mentioning a strange fact about Antarctic wildlife.

Explorer David Fletcher planned a hike at 5:30 in the morning to the top of a steep glacier. We took two steps forward and one step back as our rain boots slid on the slippery slope or were stuck in the ice, but we made it to the top feeling a sense of victory and accomplishment. Later, after a good breakfast, we did it over again on another glacier and took ice core samples that have existed for as long as half a century. Fletcher explained just how valuable such research was and how these samples were artifacts of the past, air, weather, and even wildlife.

We took some deep breaths, and then we slid down the glacier. A half hour hike concluded with a 20 second slide. Students didn’t hesitate to climb back up only to slide down one more time. Everyone got to his or her feet slowly after the slides ended, checking for any holes in pants from the slide, and there were plenty to find. This activity was obviously fun, but by sliding down we gathered an understanding of ice texture, glacier steepness, and much more.

“My pant pocket came right off, but I didn’t care. The slide was worth it,” said Palestinian SOI participant Zayne Abudagga.

This type of constructive learning is perhaps one of the most effective ways to relish an education mainly because it involves all of the human senses. Students can truly experience and absorb their learning this way, even if it means sentencing themselves to a distinct penguin smell for weeks. And that is exactly what many of the 65 students admitted happened during the expedition.

We were chosen as ambassadors from Staten Island to experience Antarctica and share our experiences when we returned. We learned many things about penguins, seals, geography, history, and the Poles. We also learned that nothing is as educational as experience itself.

Junior Column: Pain-Free Finals

Nicole Margolies — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:12:02 +0000

The halls echo with well-earned sighs of relief, now that first semester finals have finished. Whether students did superbly well, are beleaguered by that one mistake, or utterly bombed, the start of a second semester means many feel entitled to forget about finals for a while.

After all, finals are stressful. Finals mean late nights studying or, unfortunately, ‘winging’ it. Finals are often also headaches students give themselves. Study smarter, not harder. The less joy the thought of finals fills your heart with, the more you need to think about them now.

The first step to pain-free finals is cliché, but it still counts: focus. You may need to endure the occasional pinch on the arm.

It takes about twenty nine repetitions for a fact to lodge in long-term memory. Finals are easier when you know the material. If you know you should study, but also know that you won’t, there’s still hope. That’s because paying attention in class is even more effective than solitary review. A little known bonus for your final is that what you learn in your classroom, you’re more likely to remember when in that classroom, thanks to a quirk of the mind called context-dependent learning. It’s another incentive to pay attention in class while you’re already there.

Second: use your resources. Strange as it may seem, teachers who take sadistic glee in watching their students flounder are fewer than the students would like to believe. If class material confuses you, clear the misunderstanding that day. Never let it linger past a week. If you do, bet that it will only haunt you when it’s too late. “If you wait until the end of the year to review, so much time has passed that you may not remember what you needed help with,” said Parent Teacher Coordinator Mrs. Lentini.

We all have our habits, and cramming is difficult to quit. To make it easier to ease out of, don’t lose your notes. Assuming you take notes in the first place, put them in a notebook, a binder, a folder, or anything that you will keep.

Bulky binders and book bags are annoying, so leave the old notes in a drawer, but once every few weeks flip through them. Jogging your memory over time like this is not only easier than attempting to swallow a textbook in four days, but it will get you better results. Jot down any questions and take them to your teacher.

According to UC of San Diego professors of psychology Hal Paxter and John Wixted in their study “Improving Long-Term Learning Through Spacing of Lessons,” if you want to remember something for a year, space the sessions out over about a month. If you become a more conscious student before the test, you may very well ace it without batting an eye. No cramming required.

Ms. Guo Joins CSIHSIS

Megan Davis and Steven Birch — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:02:54 +0000

Steven Birch | The Insider
Ms. Guo teaches students Chinese

Last month our school welcomed a new Chinese teacher to the staff, Ms. May Guo. In addition to teaching Mandarin, Ms. Guo is a sophomore advisor.

Ms.Guo previously taught Mandarin Chinese for two years at KAPPA International High School in the Bronx.

“This school is very similar to the school where I used to teach because they both are international and both offer Mandarin programs. They both do international trips like going to Costa Rica,” said Ms.Guo.

With much experience, Ms.Guo likes to teach the Chinese language using different methods.

“ I like to use songs to teach Chinese vocabulary, and it also helps students with Chinese pronunciation. In learning characters, I’m sure the kids don’t like to simply memorize every character or write it over until it’s remembered. I like to use Liu Shu to help students understand characters and put parts together to form characters. Liu Shu is used to learn characters by understanding the category the characters are in. Liu Shu is also used in understanding the creator of the characters to understand the roots of each and expand on the vocabulary,” said Ms.Guo.

Besides being involved with school activities, Ms.Guo says she loves paper cutting, listening and playing the Chinese Harp, Origami and some simpler sports such as jogging, hiking, and traveling.

We are all so pleased to have Ms.Guo teaching at our school.

Seeing Others From the Inside Out

Celeste Chow and Jamie Miller — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:01:03 +0000

Kim Hernandez | The Insider
Sophomore Students visit the Bodies Exhibit in Manhattan

Rumor has it that the bodies on display at the Bodies Exhibition at the South Street Seaport are dead political prisoners from China. According to the employees, the Chinese government donated these unclaimed bodies for exhibit.

“They [the bodies] come from northern China. The people who die in the hospitals and have unclaimed bodies for six months to a year are taken care of by the government. The Chinese government donates them to The Bodies Exhibition,” said a Bodies Exhibition Volunteer.

This month all the sophomores were taken to this exhibit to enhance their science learning and spend time together outside the classroom.

Although students have not learned about the body yet in living environment, the trip was mandatory for all sophomores because learning about the body is part of the living environment curriculum.

According to Ms. Carmella Pepe, the bodies are preserved by a technique called polymer preservation. This process permanently preserves the bodies in a liquid silicone rubber that prevents decay. All the body fluids are removed before injecting the silicone and are replaced with a chemical called acetone.

“I was very interested in the Bodies Exhibit because it gave me an inside look of how an actual human body looks,” said sophomore Michael Luppino.

The Bodies Exhibition allows students to learn about the inside of their bodies and includes displays of body parts that have been affected by smoking and obesity.

“I have been to The Bodies Exhibition before, and the display of the bodies was disturbing, but I learned a lot from the trip,” said sophomore Christopher Smart.

While visiting, students learned about organs, tissues, and many other parts of the body. Students also learned where each part is located in the body and their function.

“I think it is important for the students to see the actual tissue and muscle fibers because they look very different from the power points and textbooks,” said science teacher Ms. Lena Douris.

Will Power is the Solution

Jayme — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:53:28 +0000

It’s been a little less than eight hours since Emely Funes’s school day “ended”. Hopping on the 44 to get home, she stares at her book bag longingly as she walks inside, knowing she has tons of work to do inside her house, not just inside her book bag. Heaving a heavy sigh, she lugs the bag upstairs amidst her siblings’ screams. A couple hours later, she drags herself downstairs for dinner, most of her work complete, too tired to do anything more than eat, shower, and go to bed.

She, like most students, is too tired to read and write just for fun. And that’s not a good thing.

Now I know what you may be thinking. But she already read and wrote, at least if she did her homework. That’s true enough, but I’m not talking about reading and writing for school work. I’m talking about doing it for non-academic purposes – personal and fun purposes.

According to www.mychild.co.uk 85 percent of a child’s learning comes from outside school and school work, and that includes reading and writing not just books, but magazines, short novels, poems, comic books, manga, and fanfiction.

“I can’t read the books I want to read because I’ve already got an assigned book to read, and it’s hard to read even that,” said sophomore Jaclyn Appelgate.

“Decrease the amount of homework,” said sophomore Emely Funes. “Teachers say ‘we have a lot of work to do too, you know’, and I understand, but it really starts with the work they give us first.”

Though less homework would be a nice solution, we all know it isn’t possible.

The only solution that is realistic, in my opinion, is pure will-power. Instead of complaining about it and doing nothing, we should make time for it.

“Anything is possible. It’s just a matter of will power and intent,” said graduate John Harden.

If we want to have time to do something other than school work, then we have to have the intent to make time.

“We all do a lot of work: students, teachers, and administrators,” said English teacher Heather Prevosti. “Sometimes we allow our work to overwhelm us. We have to create a space for work and a space for play. There should be balance in our lives, and the only person who can ensure that healthy balance is each of us.”

Making a schedule and having it include some leisure time when you can do whatever you want can help reduce some stress too. Have the schedule include the dreaded “bed time”. Eight hours of sleep can help more than you think, and may even help your grades.

Should Student Led Conferences be Mandatory?

The Insider — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:49:38 +0000

Who needs student led conferences? Are we still eight-year-olds who need our parents to tell us when to do our homework and prepare for a test? What’s wrong with just having simple parent-teacher conferences? We could tell our parents everything about school at home, so why should we drag ourselves and them to school after school? Why should we have to struggle through ten minutes of an awkward conversation with our parents in front of a teacher? And why is this all mandatory to pass advisory?

While all of these may seem like perfectly valid complaints, the school’s defense for student led conferences is quite solid as well. No matter how much we may wish to deny it, these conferences are not so unreasonable.

Student led conferences are not solely for involving parents. Parents are already easily connected through the wonders of the internet, Engrade and e-mail, to all school officials. According to principal Ms. Aimee Horowitz, “the conferences make students more accountable for their learning when they voice their strengths and weaknesses, discuss their learning, and explain their grades. It allows a student to proudly display accomplishments and acknowledge inconsistencies.” So, maybe we need a little parental support now and then.

We all know that the majority of the student body would not do the same thing at home. The most common response to what did you do in school today? Is already nothing. Teachers choose to work at our school knowing that such commitments to a student and parent exist. In fact, student led conferences were chosen by the faculty to be the primarily method of report card distribution at our school. Likewise, students and their parents chose to attend our unique school. Student led conferences are as much of a requirement as those pesky end-of-the-year portfolio projects and plentiful community service hours.

Besides, a ten minute conversation is not a grand project. It could easily be completed in… oh, ten minutes.

“Advisory is a class,” said Ms. Horowitz. “Assignments in classes are not optional, and advisory is not an exception.”

There are alternatives to the typical student led conferences as well. If a parent truly be unable to meet at school, then any other guardian or even faculty member can fill their spot. The purpose of these conferences is for a student to absorb the print on their report cards and hear some feedback from any person who can lend an ear and care.

Overall, we’ve learned to be understanding of the school’s ambitions regarding education and our participation in it. But should these conferences be mandatory for passing advisory? We’re still not convinced. A class can’t have only one test or assignment. The concept of “Don’t lay all your eggs in one basket” vaguely yet interestingly applies here. Perhaps the better idea would be for student led conferences to account for a portion of the overall advisory grade rather than its entirety. Attendance, participation, and smaller assignments should account for some portion of advisory too. After all, attending student led conferences doesn’t guarantee a passing grade, so why should not attending guarantee a failing grade?

With tweaks here and there, maybe those student led conferences won’t be so bad. And, isn’t a half-hour effort worth a passing grade on your high school transcript?

Couples Honored by Asia Society for Global Efforts

Priscilla Torres — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:48:24 +0000

Asia Society

President Vishakha Desai discusses global issues and
other topics with Sesame Street’s Grover.

It was a Tuesday night in November, cold and chilly, when the Asia Society honored influential couples who have made an impact on the world. This event took place at the 33rd New York Annual Dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan emceed by Asia Society President Vishakha Desai.

“I am globally fluent in fashion,” said special guest Grover from Sesame Street.

According to Grover, partnerships with educators around the world are a necessity because learning and sharing with each other is the most important thing someone can do.

The dinner included interviews by CNN anchor Daljit Dhaliwal, and each of the honored guests, whose achievements and jobs revolve around journalism, diplomacy, education, and public policy.

The honored couples included Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke and Kati Marton, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Deepak S. Parekh and Smita Parekh, Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney, and the Kronos Quartet.
Journalist Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn responded passionately when asked about the education and development of women worldwide.

“The remedy to so many of the problems around the world has to do with education. We [Americans] don’t share that same passion for education as Pakistan fundamentalists do, and we sure should,” said Kristof.

“Education can be done in many different ways. Even if a handful [of schools] are taken out, we still need to educate. Education still is the long-term solve, but also important, is the idea of bringing women into the labor force and letting them play productive roles in society. Education isn’t enough, but it’s a good start.”

Kristof and his wife were honored for their contributions to journalism, including their books Thunder from the East and China Wakes, and their efforts in raising awareness about global health, poverty, and gender issues.

This couple influences the world daily with their words.

When asked how students can begin to help the world’s needy besides educating themselves, Sheryl WuDunn said to visit the website halftheskymovement.org because it lists many non-profit organizations that work to help women.
When asked the same question Kristof said, “Take a gap year after high school, before college. It’s more popular but unusual. Go abroad; get outside of your country zone. It can be a life changing perspective.” The Asia society, hosts of the annual dinner, is also a partner with our school.

The Asia Society’s mission is to promote a greater amount of knowledge on global issues in the United States. Their purpose is to bring the Asia and U.S. leaders together to solve important issues including human rights, the status of women, and environmental and global health issues.