Back in Session

First off let me welcome both my new and returning readers to the blog, which I will be calling "Paradigm Shift" if I ever have to refer to it in a post for the sake of sanity.  I doubt it will happen, but there you go.  I'll try to update pretty regularly, but with my class schedule I may get a bit more irregular as the year goes on.  I will definitely update regarding anything earth shattering.

And speaking of earth shattering events, Wednesday marked the beginning of my Junior Year.  Cue panicked screams.  I am officially in 11th grade and will officially have to deal with all the added stress that comes with that.  As if Greenwich Academy wasn't stressful enough already!  The first day is always marked by the staccato shuffling of the student body into progressively smaller assemblies.  We begin with the "Welcome Back!" all school assembly, then the Upper School Assembly, then class meetings, then advisories.  There's a lot of herding involved.  After we have been sufficiently oriented to our new roles in the school, class orientation begins.  I've always thought this was an interesting process; every class meets for 20 minutes to go over the syllabi and the class structure and so that the students can meet their classmates.  So what better way to start off a new blog than with an overview of the beginning of my Junior Journey...

A Block - Theatrical Design and Stage Craft (AKA "Stage Tech"):  I finally have an art class on my calendar!  Although, and this is true to my nature, it is probably the most stressful art class in the course selection book.  Seriously, you should see my gmail calendar!   It is a frightening patchwork of show and concert schedules.  But I love Stage Tech and I wouldn't take any other art class.  I'm really excited to learn more about the most awesome yet most under appreciated side of theatre.

B Block - Pre-Calculus Accelerated:  I'll say it now, math is not my strong suit.  That said, I think math should be OK this year.  I know I have a great teacher (in all honesty, I have all great teachers) and I have a small class, which means that no one should get lost in the material.  So yeah.  Pre-Calc.  This should be... fun?

C Block - Free: thank god for the existence of a free period.  'Nuff said.

D Block - Physics: No honors.  This is my first time in non-honors science and I have to say I'm fine with the fact that I won't be killing myself in Honors Physics.  Admittedly there's only one guy in my class which is really strange for a Brunswick Class, but my teacher says that we'll probably get some more guys after they drop out of Honors.  He said that straight up on the first day.  I like this guy.  He also studied astrophysics in University, which is pretty awesome (especially since I wanted to be an astrophysicist in 5th grade).  I'm looking forward to this class.

E Block - English XI:  American Literature is the focus of this course and I can't say I'm that jazzed about the syllabus.  I have always much preferred European Literature and I'm not a fan of the structure of the class.  We are currently set out to read two major texts (The Scarlet Letter and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) with excerpts and short works interspersed throughout.  In my opinion, we should read full texts.  In my last English class we got through a pretty significant number of works in the year by just blasting through them.  One might argue that you don't get as in depth when you blast through, but in my opinion that's just fine.  I love English, don't get me wrong; but when one's English teacher beats a book to death by over analysing the questionably real symbolism, it takes the joy out of reading great literature.  But I love English.  So I'll be fine.

F Block - AP Spanish Language: My Spanish teacher is a Mamet play; she's staccato and swears in class.  It'll most definitely take some getting used to, but it should work out.  She tends to switch back and forth between English and Spanish, which annoys me a bit (for God's sake it's AP!  Speak Spanish to us!) but I'm sure as the year goes on the ratio will tip more in the favor of Spanish.  All in all, I'm looking forward to this year.  The reading list looks fantastic and the syllabus also looks great.  Yay Spanish!

G Block - APUSH:  I'm not a fan of American History, but I am a fan of my History teacher.  He does some great projects and I know I'll love the class.  I have a great teacher and great classmates, so I am really looking forward to what I ought to be dreading.

So Junior year is looking awesome.  I have great classes and some great extracurriculars lined up (Dance, Fencing, Yoga, OPES, GSA, Econ Club, Model Government, Philosophy Club, and Stage Tech) so things are really looking up!

See you around the comments section!