Autumn in the High School
As the weather cools and days darken, many teachers might be tempted to hunker down inside with their students and stick to their tried-and-true lessons and routines. Not so at LREI. Throughout the high school, the faculty are engaging students in provocative discussions, assigning challenging and relevant projects, leading experiential trips around the city, and welcoming inspirational guests into their classrooms. In this way, the faculty inspire students to pursue their own academic passions and model how to be life-long learners. Here are just a few of the exciting things happening in high school classrooms this fall:
- Art Teacher Janet Atkinson writes: It was a busy beginning of the school year in the art studio. 11th grade students made shoes from cardboard and are now concentrating on an observed still life painting. Other students visited the Chelsea art show of LREI parent Anne Delaney. Anne graciously agreed to meet with the students to discuss her work and take questions – what an amazing opportunity!
- Sergei Mikhelson’s 12th grade Advanced Math class just completed a project on finding an optimal production policy for companies using Linear Programming and started discovering the Election Theory, where they examine the advantages and drawbacks of different voting models. 11th grade Algebra II students are in the final stage of creating a drawing using only graphs of functions discussed throughout the course.
- Last week, the entire 9th grade wrote an interdiscplinary essay analyzing the character of Antigone (from the play by Sophocles) through the comparative lens of the life of Socrates. English Teacher Jane Belton and History Teacher Tom Murphy collaborated on this innovative writing assignment.
- Meghan Farley Astrachan’s 12th Grade Drama class is writing and recording Radio Plays with WNYC Radio!
- Music teacher Vin Scialla writes: LREI World Music Series kicked off the year with master mandolinist, Snehasish Mozumder. The performance focused on “Music from India: tradition to invention.” A masterclass with Snehasish and Sameer (tabla) followed the performance with an intimate Q & A for LREI student musicians. Snehasish Mozumder, an exploratory string virtuoso, expands the boundaries of the mandolin instrument.
- In Tom Murphy’s Global War on Terrorism class, students are practicing to be policy-makers of the future, researching and writing their own policy briefs.
- Janet Atkinson and Susan Now took their 12th grade Studio Art and Photography classes to see Emma Thompson’s exhibit in Washington Square Park called Journey, an art installation that explores one woman’s “journey into hell” when she was trafficked to the UK. The installation will be in WSP from today November 10 until November 16. Click here for details.
- In the Constitutional Law elective, history teacher Bill Bailey runs the discussion using the Socratic method, typical of a law school class. Students must be ready to answer any question with correct legal vocabulary. This week’s topic was school desegregation, with students studying Supreme Court Cases from Brown to Bakke.
- The 10th grade Dance students worked on a group piece, featuring 90-second solo material by each dancer. During class, teacher Peggy Peloquin conferences individually with students to guide them through the creative process.
- Students in English teacher Ileana Jimenez’s “Fierce and Fabulous: Feminist Literature” class watched the film Very Young Girls, about the commercial sexual exploitation of girls in NYC. This documentary was made by the organization GEMS (Girls Educational Mentoring Services): it’s mission is to “is to empower young women, ages12-21, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking, to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. GEMS is committed to ending commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children by changing individual lives, transforming public perception, and revolutionizing the systems and policies that impact sexually exploited youth.” Visitors to the class include two outreach workers from GEMS the executive director from Equality Now, Taina Bien-Aime. Ileana writes, “I’m proud of our students for taking on these conversations seriously, and for my colleagues and I to be engaging our students in taking action against these horrific crimes against women and children.”