Abby Goes to Calhoun

Somehow, my second alarm didn’t go off. I don’t have to be at school until 9:25 on Mondays, so I was able to sleep in a little- but waking up at 9:07 wasn’t exactly my plan. I made it to my first class at 9:30 on time though. Rough day.

I have my first actual homework assignment tonight in English. We have to write a characterization for each character’s response to Addie’s death in As I Lay Dying. Intense. I love the book. I’m so excited to finish the assignment.

After English, I had 3rd grade Language Arts class. It was so much fun! The kids in this class were as exciting as my class on Friday. Genna is writing an intense story with Greek mythology elements about cats and dogs. So far it is 22 pages long. Her friend, Charlotte, is helping her edit. I helped kids with spelling and graded worksheets for the majority of the class.

I then had 20th Century American Cities. We were also assigned a project. This is a visual project, involving graphs. We had to compare data between three zip codes. This is the first visual project I’ve been assigned since 10th grade. The due date is next Wednesday. In class, we looked at examples of graphs people did last year, so we would know what works and what doesn’t. The students, in particular Samuel, had very vocal, yet smart opinions on the ways students presented their census data. We learned that simplicity is the key. I think I’m going to use vacant housing and percentage of people who live below the poverty line. We’ll see- this is subject to change.

20th Century was a double period today. After class, it was time for lunch. I ate in the tiny school lunchroom with two of the many seniors named Ben and Samuel . Both are fascinating gentlemen.

I then went back to the second floor for another section of 3rd grade LA. This was the same ‘cluster group’ that I taught 3rd grade math to during my last period on Friday. Therefore, the infamous Crosby was back-  and he was bad. He still refuses to listen. If he’s reprimanded, he listens for about 3 minutes, then goes back to doing whatever he was doing. I did get to help a student, Cameron, write a short story about a whole mess of Halloween-esque creatures. He was a lot of fun.

I then had a free period, during which I had intellectual conversation with two seniors, Sota and Sam. It was a nice way to end the day.

I didn’t get back to the apartment until 6. I’m exhausted, even though I slept in. I still need to finish homework. Good evening.

The Upper West Side- it was unseasonably warm today. A great day for walks around Riverside.

Today was mostly spend sleeping in at the Homestead, getting ready for the week, and playing with Sarah and Robert’s fantastic herd of animals.

Here are two members of the herd:

This is Chester, the one eyed wonder of the household. He’s probably the cutest dog I’ve ever seen.

This is Eddie. He has one eye as well, but it in not currently functioning. He’s blind as a bat and much cuter.

The rest of the Herd can be seen on the official website of the Homestead.

http://www.raldrich.com/www.raldrich.com/Home.html

It was a great weekend- thanks Sarah and Robert!

I’m back in the city now, preparing for school tomorrow. I’m heading to bed- good night all.

My aunt, Sarah, is one of my closest friends. Every break from school I have, I go to Westport. She owns a store in there, Dovecote, that I did an independent study on Sophomore year. Every time I come visit, I spend time in Dovecote. I love all the people who work there! It was nice to see everyone today. Her store is insanely beautiful. Here’s website: http://dovecote-westport.com/

My aunt is also involved in this organization, Artists for Charity (http://www.artistsforcharity.org/). A customer of hers got her interested in it. Watch the video on the home page- it’ll make you cry.

The deaf girl in the video, Mekdes, has been brought to America to have surgery on her ears. She’s on a six month medical visa, and is staying with a volunteer, Katrina. Sarah and I met up with Katrina and Mekdes for lunch and shopping today. Sarah bought Mekdes her first winter shoes- she got pink  Merrell’s lined with sheepskin and pink peace sign rain boots. Mekdes has quite the fashion sense. She was wearing head to toe pink.

Mekdes is HIV positive. She’s a double orphan. She cannot hear. Think of her before you open your mouth to complain.

Because of her very unknown past, no one is sure how Mekdes became HIV positive or how she lost her hearing. Both of her parents died from AIDS , so it’s possible she was born with it. Also, she might have became death from untreated ear infections. No one can know for sure. Mekdes came to America to have surgery on her ears to see if she can gain any of her hearing back. They hope to at least gain enough back so she can hear some sounds and music, but it is extremely unlikely she will ever be able to have a conversation or speak.

Mekdes communicates with American Sign Language and some of her own made-up sign language. She names everyone after a physical characteristic. Sarah is poison ivy, because she’s had the worst case I’ve ever seen all over her arms. Her friends in Ethiopia are fondly named chapped lips, wart, and brown teeth. Mekdes is very smart, artistic, and funny. If Katrina is having trouble understanding what Mekdes is saying, she’s swat her arm at Katrina like she’s a fly! Mekdes showed me and Sarah pictures of her friends in Ethiopia on Katrina’s iphone for a solid 20 minutes. I’ve never met anyone as incredible as her.

Mekdes hugged me when she left and waved to me and Sarah many times while leaving Dovecote. It was so earnest and sweet. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Anyone reading this: please look at the website and watch the video. It’s an amazing organization.

The rest of the day was spent driving around New York and Connecticut with my aunt. When we finally returned to the Homestead, we were both so tired that we ordered pizza for dinner. The clan is retiring early tonight.

Some of the artwork done by children in Artists for Charity.

The day had a late start- I woke up at 7:30 and I have to leave at 7:55. Thank goodness, I can get ready quickly in the morning. I walked into the 59th street station the second the one train was pulling up to take me uptown.

Today started with 20th Century. Our homework was to look at the census for the school’s zip code. The main ones we talked about were race, religion, income, home price, and education level. Our homework for the weekend is to look at a variable in the census and compare it to the same variable in a different New York zip code. I’m excited for this! I’m going to use the zip code of where I’m staying. More on this later.

I then had a double period in the LS. I first worked with Rima, a sub for the usual 3rd grade Language Arts teacher. The class first read a poem and discussed the rhymes and imagery of the poem. It was very fun to hear children discuss imagery! Then, the kids had to either write a comment about the poem or write a new line for the poem, and draw a picture. Jeffery, a kid who had a lot of trouble with his spelling, drew the most incredible picture of a haunted house in his journal. The detail was insane! There was another kid who wouldn’t pay attention in class, but was clearly very capable. Fernando was such a treat to work with. He wrote an entire new poem to go with the one read in class! He did this entirely by himself and was the only student in the class who chose to write a new line for the poem. His poem ended with the line, I roll my lucky die and then the sighing ghouls go to sleep. It was so beautiful. What a great kid.

I then went over to Austin’s 2nd grade Math class. I worked with 3 girls. The activity today was subtracting and adding with die, using the rods. The girls really got into this activity and tried to get the highest numbers! It was a lot of fun, and they weren’t afraid to ask for help if they needed it.

I then had Psychology. We discussed the didn’t physco-sexual stages. Really fascinating…I’m not sure if I believe in all this work, but the Oral stage really makes a lot of sense. A lot of boys in the class smoke, so Alison gives them a hard time for having to have something in their mouths. Half the class was chewing gum today too- another oral fixation. The fact that Alison felt comfortable enough to talk about all these sexual things was interesting to me as well. She’s very relaxed with the class of all seniors.

I then had 4rd grade math with Anthony. He’s such a great teacher. Today, the activity was a card game- you had to make “BFFs” or two numbers that make ten or twenty using cards. I had a two girls and a boy in the group. Oh goodness. Crosby, the little boy, was a nightmare. I usually can handle kids, but he was out of control. First, he kept saying ‘penis’ and ‘boobies’, which made the girls laugh. Then he kept trying to cheat. Then he called the girls names- myself included. It was awful. Nothing was working to calm him down. Apparently, he has a repuatation for this- I talked to some other US students who work with the math kids, and he’s known for acting out. When the period was over, I was so glad to get out of there, and to lunch.

After lunch, I had a double free. So, essentially, I was done with school at 12:45. I stayed though, and got some work done, then tried to make some friends. It was a nice afternoon.

Tonight, I drove into Connecticut with my uncle ( Robert) , Meredith, and Steve (her boyfriend). Robert is one of the funniest people I have ever met, so the drive was full of laughs. I’m staying with my aunt this weekend, and driving back to NY with Robert on Sunday. I’m so excited to sleep in a bed tonight! I’m about to take a hot shower and then doze into a divine slumber. I have a busy weekend ahead of me.

Some of the kids did ask me to hang out this weekend, so it makes me feel at least a little loved.

I’m glad to get out of the city for two days though. Some much needed rest time!

My aunt and uncle’s house in Westport, CT. The outside matches its perfect interior. More pictures to come!

The morning started out with Psychology. Another crazy class. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this already, but all the food at Calhoun is free. They even serve breakfast! So in first period, kids often are late because they had to go downstairs to get oatmeal, cereal, apples, orange juice, coffee, etc. Just an interesting fact about Calhoun.  I was able to Alison, the teacher, before class. She was really nice. Her elder son went to Calhoun all his life, then went to Dennison for college. We discussed the outsiders view of New York. Apparently, everyone just automatically assumed he was Jewish after saying he was from New York. I just thought people not from New York have a sort of dream-like vision of what it’s like, which is encouraged by cinema and TV. Let’s be serious- NY is not a Sex and the City episode. Not everyone wears high heels and designer clothes. It’s so different from it’s media interpretation. New York is dirty, grimy, and difficult. But there are so many pro’s that outweigh those con’s. I was once attacked by an MV US teacher for saying that New York was a great city, and that I wanted to live there someday. The teacher yelled at me and said  it was too expensive, overcrowded, and dirty and that I was a fool for wanting to live there.  I guess New York really attracts people, and dispels others. I wonder what my classmates and teachers would say about that argument…

After Cluster, it was time for “Town Meeting”. Usually this period is like Assembly. It takes up a class period, and it’s only once a week. But today, it was time for class pictures. Each grade goes to Riverside park and gets their picture taken on a giant rock. When it was the seniors turn, they all started yelling at me to get in the picture (some louder than others), but I felt really weird about that. Didn’t seem like the right time. Tomorrow, though, apparently I’m going to be in the Cluster photo.

I then met up with Sarah and the LS head, Alison, to schedule what periods I would work in the LS.

I’m doing 3rd grade Language Arts, 2nd grade Social Studies, 2nd grade Math, and 3rd grade Math. I started today with 2nd grade math. They were doing tangrams! So relaxing. I just helped a couple students make animals out of the tangrams. So fun.

Then, I had a free period. I discussed with a friend from Psychology, Brian, the under-workings of the Calhoun social scene. Apparently, they don’t have many cliques. The senior class is a mere 40 kids. Not exactly a social paradise. It was nice hearing more about how Calhoun works.

I then went to English. We continued to discuss As I Lay Dying. I’m a few chapters behind, but the book is so good! I can’t wait to catch up. The class is the smartest one I’ve seen at Calhoun so far. It’s really discussion heavy, with intense readings of specific chapters. So far, my favorite character is Dewey Dell. Her first chapter was so incredible. I really love the book. The teacher, Kristen, is really great in class too.

During lunch, I got pizza with some people I haven’t really talked to yet. Again, it was nice to meet other people besides my buddy.

I had 3rd grade math after lunch. They were working on measurements. I worked specifically with a boy named Ethan. He did math in his head the EXACT same way I do. He makes all his numbers into fives and tens and goes from there. He finished the required assignment first, so the teacher, Anthony, and I gave him some extra problems to do. Most kids work in one digits numbers, but Ethan can handle two digit and even three digit numbers. It was great working with him! He seemed extremely socially awkward. When a boy was waiting his turn to measure something, Ethan freaked out. He was worried the boy was going to steal his answer. I sat down with them, and Ethan was fine. Kids are so fascinating to me…

I ended the day with 20th Century American City. We discussed federal funding in schools and Brown vs Board of Education. It was so interesting to hear how all of this affected New York! It’s so different from any history class I’ve ever been in. I can barely remember specifically what we talked about- the class went by so quickly. My notes say something about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and No Child Left Behind. I’ll figure it out tomorrow. My homework is to look at the Census for the zip code of the school and pick two interesting statistics and see how they relate. I’m so excited to go look!

Tomorrow’s Friday! I have two frees at the end of the day, so we’ll see what happens with those. I also start 3rd grade Language Arts. I’m so excited.

These are the counting rods the math students use. They are so helpful! I wish I could use them…

Today was ten thousand times better than yesterday. Crisis avoided.

I started out with Digital Video Imaging with Gary, the coolest guy I’ve ever met. I arrived early, so I was able to chat and instantly bond with Gary over a mutual love for Niel Young, specifically our favorite album, On the Beach. This class was only one other senior, Leah (my buddy for the day), and otherwise all underclassman. Gary was very patient with the students. Today, he showed the class how to use Final Cut, a movie editing program. It was very complex but had a TON of features- much more than iMovie. I’m not in any digital classes at MV, so I really had nothing to compare it to.

After a much calmer Cluster period with Danny (US math and science teacher) and Lavern (the US Assistant Director), it was time for a history class, 20th Century American City. What a great class!  The class revolves around a text the class is named after. I’m getting a copy of it tomorrow, so I can follow along for the rest of my visit. This truly is a seminar-style class.  The teacher posed a question at the beginning of class, and EVERYONE(except me) participated in the discussion. It was so interesting! I can’t wait to get my hands on the text. This is taught by the Lavern and Jennifer (the US director), so the students were more in line than my classes yesterday.

Then, time for Psychology. This class was similar to yesterday. We continued the discussion of defense mechanisms- like rationalization, regression, displacement, etc. A girl mentioned that defense mechanism of hers was when she was new a situation, she would stand back and watch the rest of the crowd before she would open up and show her actual personality. When I was called on to share a defense mechanism, I related what that girl said to my current situation- I was holding back so I could scope out of the scene first. Literally, I was watching everyone else stare at me (I’ve never been stared at more in my entire life. Seriously. I feel like a zoo animal).

After that, Astronomy! This class was also taught by the very cool Danny. This science class brought my back to middle school science with D. The teacher a) makes powerpoints with all the notes on it b) explains the notes thoroughly and c) emails the students the powerpoints after class. I’ve never seen anything like this in a high school. I guess with science that makes sense, because everything you learn builds up. Astronomy seemed interesting, but I had no clue what was going on (I’m in Physics at home).

Then, Free period. My buddy had gym, which I quickly opted out of, so I sat in the hallway with a group of students. Watching them interact was fascinating. I had to explain Winterim about 45 times today, minimum. Some kids wouldn’t even acknowledge my presence….so weird

I went to lunch with my buddy and her friends. It was so nice not to be in that school for a period. The girls were really nice, and I was relieved not to be stared at for  a little bit.

I then went alone to Theater/Video/Concept/Image. This class is two teacher with one student (and then, for today, me). This class is focused on building the complex lighting, sound, and image for the US play, the Laramie Project. This is a fantastic play, and anyone not framilar should look it up immediately. Essentially, the play is captured in moments, not scenes. There are 59 different moments in the play, and each one needs its own background to be projected onto the backdrop, stage, and even audience. This class is taught by Gary, the cool Niel Young guy, and Margie, the theater teacher from yesterday’s Comedy Troupe.  The one students is an underclassman. They basically pitch ideas to each other about what the images should be, and the lighting, the sound, etc. It was so cool to see it all happen. The play, sadly, is in six weeks…if only I was staying longer! I would LOVE to be a part of the production.

That class was a double period today (I still don’t understand their scheduling, but once I do, I’ll let you know), so I went to see Sarah to set up my schedule.

I chose to take Psychology, Philosophies and Aesthetics, Teaching LS Math, and 20th Century American City. The other four periods of the day will be spent in the lower school. I still don’t exactly know what I’ll be doing there, but I’m sorting it out tomorrow with Sarah.

I guess since I’m the ‘new girl’, I’m bound to be stared at. It’s really awkward though…I mean, I have eyes- I can see you staring at me.  It’s like when MV gets a new female student. Fresh meat…

Final Cut- the program we used in Digital Video Imaging.It’s as complicated as it looks.

The first thing I noticed about Calhoun’s high school on the 4th floor was the lack of actual rooms…most classrooms are connected in some way to those beside it. The first class on Laura’s (the girl I followed today) Tuesday schedule was Philosophies and Aesthetics- a senior English class. Class started at 8:30 and most students wandered in at the last second, with breakfast from the downstairs cafeteria. Apparently, food is allowed everywhere.Attendance isn’t taken until second period. In English, it was a seminar style setting- a rounded table with about 10 kids in the class. They had just started reading Faulkner’s While I Lay Dying. From what I read of it in class, a very difficult, beautiful book. When I choose my courses, this English will be on the top of my list. Yet, what differentiated most from my English classes at MV was the focusing on the text so much- the past two years in English, my classes have focused more on the overall theme of the literature rather than the exact diction and meaning of each and every chapter. It reminded me of 10th grade English. I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but I like seeing something different.

After English, it was time for ‘cluster’. Cluster seems to be like a combination of advisee and assembly. This is a supposedly five minute period. Calhoun students have five minutes between classes. As if this time wasn’t enough, students and teachers seem to wander in whenever they feel like it. Maybe it was only in the classes I was in.

Anyway, in Cluster, the teacher reads announcments from a piece of paper while the students within that cluster stand around, goof off, txt on their cell phones, and listen to their ipods. Seriously. It was like the anti-Maumee Valley. The teacher seemed to notice no one was listening, but he just kind of ignored it. He was really funny and reminded me a lot of Rollie. It was just really silly, all around. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Down we went to Psychology, another all senior class. What a great class. I loved it. It was all discussion oriented, very open. It reminded me of a less-strict Mumford class. It was like a conversation. What also reminded me of MV was the way all the boys sat against the wall. It was like they had assigned seats. It reminded me of AP English where we all have to sit in the same place everyday. A lot of classes at MV are like that though. I just thought it was interested how it was gender segregated. Maybe I’ll break the segregation someday. I also want to take this class for the three weeks.

I had a ‘free’ period after this. My buddy had a college meeting so I just found a random classroom in the upper school and talked to a teacher, Kathy, the whole time. She was so nice and helpful. No one else really took the time to talk to me or even show me where stuff was (my advisor, Sarah, tried this morning, but she didn’t have any free time). She went out of her way to help me out. It was so nice to have someone make an effort. She took me upstairs to the theather for Comedy Troupe- a class devoted entirely to acting and comedy. It was so much fun! The class was mostly seniors. We first warmed up with an activity that I’m not sure had anything to do with acting. Then they moved on to rehearsing their student-directed skits for a performance next week. It looked like a lot of fun. I would like to take this class as well, but I’m not sure it’ll fit into my schedule. The Calhoun theater is quite different from the Millennium. It’s all black with chairs instead of built in seating. And there are only abut four rows on the ground, then a higher level with three rows of seating, surounding the stage on three sides. The exact opposite of the Millennium, actually.

After this, I went to the lower school on floor 2 for Teaching Lower School Math. My buddy is one of the four students in this class. They work with 2nd and 3rd graders during their math classes. As a part of this class, the US students have to eventually create a lesson plan and teach class for a day. They just started working on their lesson plans. This porgram is very unique, even within Independent schools, and it’s the main reasons I chose Calhoun. I want to work in the lower school for part of my school day, then have two or three US courses. Hopefully I won’ t have to teach math though. The 3rd grade teacher I observed today was amazing- if only I’d been taught math that way! Then maybe I would actually enjoy math. During Lunch, which is much later than MV (12:50!), the students in the Teaching LS Math class have a meeting once a week with the math teachers. They discussed that they’ve observed lately and their upcoming lesson plans. It was so cool to see how the teachers make up their plans.

Then we had Calculus. I’m not even in Calc at MV. I really didn’t know what was going on. I just wrote in my journal during class. No one seemed to mind. The teacher was the same one from Cluster. I really liked him!

The day ended with Commnity Action. This class, if you ask me, seemed like BS. They meet twice a week to discuss what community service projects kids are working on. The woman in charge of it was so dull. Nothing she said made any sense. It was awful. Thankfully, this was the last class of the day; I was so tired!

Other things I noticed at Calhoun that were completely different from MV:

There is an elevator, but only for seniors and falculty.

Teachers are called by their first name. Always.

Classes consistently run over, with no apparent consequence.

Teachers and students have no dress code. The 3rd grade teacher was wearing jeans, a t shirt, and Nikes. Really.

Ipods and cell phones can be out at anytime.

There seems to be no apparent discipline. I still don’t really understand this.

Food is free all day long. Even breakfast is served!

Also, my favorite conversation of the day.

“This is Abby.”

“Where are you from?”  purple sweater asked me.

“Toledo, Ohio” I said.

“Oh. How do you like that?” she asked in the most evil tone I’ve ever heard.

then later:

“I’m a senior” I said.

“OH WHERE ARE YOU APPLYING?” asked everyone in the classroom.

“Schools on the east coast mostly…”

“like WHERE?!?”

“Uhh…”

Then, in Phycology:

“Oh, are you Ohio?”

Tomorrow, I’m following around Leah. Her schedule is completely different from Laura’s, except for Psychology. I’m excited to see what else I can learn about Calhoun!

Upper West Side, where Calhoun is. Basically, all the streets look like this.

I have safely and successfully arrived in New York. I took a cab to the apartment and attempted to unpack my bags (yes, plural). My sister’s dog jumped on my face and cried with joy when he saw me. It was precious.
After “unpacking” a bit, I went and got lunch and my unlimited metropass. Four stops later, I was at 79th street and Broadway. Calhoun in on 81st and West End Ave. I walked all around the neighborhood- so pretty! Calhoun looks so cool. My advisor told me earlier that the neighbor’s call the it the TV school. It kind of does look like a TV; the front of the building is rounded, like a TV screen. After stalking the school a bit, I walked down the street to Riverside Park. It was a beautiful day so I took a stroll along with the mothers with strollers and men with their dogs.
Tonight, a friend who goes to school in the city is coming over for chinese food. No one from the school could make it for dinner.
Tomorrow, I meet Sarah, my advisor, in the lobby at 8:15. I’m following a student around for tomorrow. My first class is a senior English class, L-K! I’ll scope out the reading list for you.

The Calhoun School

Even though I’m leaving Detroit at noon tomorrow, my room is currently littered with things I’m supposedly taking with me to New York tomorrow…

I’m so ready to leave. This past week has been so ridiculous, I haven’t had time to be excited yet. The play is over. Hell week is over. Let’s go.

I’m taking a cab to my sister’s apartment tomorrow. Turns out her boyfriend, Steve (a journalist at Reuters), is working late tomorrow and can’t have dinner with me! So I’ll be alone all day. I have some friends who go to art school downtown, but who knows if they’ll be able to see me.

I emailed my network advisor, Sarah, to see if she could find some Calhoun students to meet up with me tomorrow. Hopefully someone will want to meet me. Maybe.

The mounds of clothes and shoes beckon me.

Can’t wait!

Columbus Circle- two blocks from Mere's apartment