Anthora

Anthora
Home

Monday, February 27, 2012

Just a Regular Monday? I Think Not...

The day started off like any other Monday, a free first period. As per my natural instinct, Jennie, my fellow H band free-er, texted me if I would like to join her in the clubhouse. For those of you who don’t utilize clubhouse, you truly are missing out on the possibilities. Not only are there two massive comfy couches, but also a coffee machine, smartboard, and speakers. Now you ask, what can you do with all of these things? A personal movie theater with free coffee. Yes I said it. Free coffee (tuition not included). And you can even put your feet up without getting yelled at by the moviegoer in the seat in front of you! After completing the last bit of a homework assignment, we started up the movie theater production, Andy Meyers in the mix. Netflix is the website of choice. We finally decided on Ally Mcbeal, highly recommend for those who don't watch. We also discussed last nights Oscars- Rooney Mara looked drop dead gorgeous while Meryl Streep, no matter how much we love her, was wearing a dress that yelled 'Hi, I’m an old lady'.

After a mug of earl gray tea and a daily dose of Ally Mcbeal and celebrity gossip, we headed to Upper School Meeting in support of our fellow citysembers (City Semester members) Tess (sporting an adorable new bob) and Charlie. The meeting was planned to get people hype and create awareness about the cause, and to gain volunteers to come to the Special Olympics event, Saturday march 4th (come if you can! Highly recommended. Life hanging experience noted by Kevin Fich).

After the assembly we gathered in the clubhouse for some more academic time. The class was spent finalizing discussion ideas for our initial meeting with Sustainable South Bronx, an organization

we are working with to create tree guards for the newly planted air purifying systems known as trees. The project involves coordinating with the local community, fundraising, if possible, $10,000 for the materials, building and installing wood and steel guards, and designing the signage around them. This project has been much debated about due to our dedication. The argument arouse over the discontinuation of our original solidarity projects, which were to work individually with an organization or possibly create your own organization to create change in a subject of your own choosing. Another highlight of the debate is whether or not some people are doing the project to do just do the physical work or to actually create a connection with SSBx and join the cause, a topic that had been previously discussed in solidarity class before this debate even took place. In today’s class we split up into our original groups, mine being Project Outreach, and discussed what we will present to SSBx about reaching out to the Hyde School, a local high school in the South Bronx that we would like to get involved in the project with us.

Biana writing the meeting's agenda

After Solidarity, we split off into our math or free period- I had math. A typical day in math speaking about second differences in arithmetic sequences. A quote from my teacher, Mr. Anhalt, that I would like to share with the world is this: “It's like mental math, but you don't have to think about it.” Just some food for thought...

After sending a fellow citysember off to the cafeteria for some bananas, apples, and peanut butter to hold us off until lunch while I saved her a seat on the couch, we started the first day of Settlement in the third unit- Immigration. A very un-Fieldston un-progressive class occurred: Andy lecturing us on his theory of why New York was an immigrant metropolis. He spoke about the Cholera outbreak and Croton Aqueduct, the subway systems of New York, and the Erie Canal.

After Settlement we headed to Science, where we continued our discussion on carbon footprints versus ecological footprints. We also analyzed the idea that had been brought up last week about comparing how many earths it would take if everybody lived like the USA does compared to another country such as Colombia (click Ecological Footprint Calculator if you would like to compare for yourself). We also watched a few minutes of a movie that went into more depth about the ecological footprint of the United States versus other countries including China, Japan, and Australia.

Following lunch, we headed to our respective language classes- mine being Spanish. We participated in our weekly ritual of going for a walk before class to get our bodies and minds moving (double period at the end of the day, it gets rough) and observed a new pizarra (blackboard) located in the center of an outdoor classroom behind the biblioteca (library). In a few weeks we plan to return there for classes! In class we split into pairs and analyzed bits of Micos en el Polo by Jorge Franco Ramos. The book is about a man named Marlon and his immigration story from Colombia to New York and the life he leads there. (Notice how it all connects to immigration, eh?)

Oh boy, that was a long day! How about another one tomorrow! Now that’s the City Semester Attitude!

No comments:

Post a Comment