A Collaboration between Beginners and the ICA Boston: Sense of Self and Belonging

Lucinda Burk, Beginner Homeroom Teacher

Cris West, Beginner Homeroom Teacher

During the Beginner South trip to the ICA Boston, students visited multiple exhibitions, including Love is Calling by Yayoi Kusama.

Cris and Lucinda worked closely with the ICA education department to prepare an age-appropriate and meaningful visit that was relatable to the interests and lives of beginners students. One of the goals of this visit was to provide Beginner students with multiple perspectives in gaining awareness and understanding of themselves and their ability to create and express their ideas in multiple ways. This visit and collaboration with the ICA allowed the children to engage in critical thinking skills and do a deeper dive into their investigation of self and belonging as they enter a new place and learning community at BB&N.

   

   

   

Brattle Theater Partnership

Zoe Balaconis, US English Teacher

For my Urban Connections Grant I worked with the education and outreach staff at the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square. It's such a community gem, and in previous years, I had been shocked to hear many students hadn't been there, hadn't heard of it, or hadn't been to a movie theater ("why? everything's online!"). As all ninth-graders do, mine were reading The Odyssey in the fall. To introduce the story, we talk about the concept of the epic, master narratives, and myths across time and cultures. 

   

One connection that nearly always comes up even without my prompting is Star Wars. The connections between Odysseus' journey and the Star Wars universe are plentiful, and it gives us a nice touchstone to discuss archetypes we'd encounter: the reluctant hero, the old sage, the questing crew...and all taking place in this world like ours, but imbued with the mythical and the mystical. Thinking back on these conversations, I reached out to Ivy Moylan, the Brattle's executive director. I proposed a field trip with my class where we'd go to the theater during our class -- just us -- tour the theater, hear about the elements of the epic in Star Wars, watch A New Hope, then have a discussion before heading back to school. She loved the idea, and had Ned Hinkle, their creative director put together a program for us. He greeted us at the door, showed us around, asked the students about their learning so far and helped us generate a list of things to watch for in the film, then watched it with us! It was so fun being in the theater all alone -- everyone was spread out -- talking was encouraged -- reactions were hilarious -- and we really bonded as a class. After, we had an excellent discussion of the staying power of stories and the influence narratives can have on a generation, a culture. All in all, it was a memorable trip, and it was wonderful for the Brattle to make it possible. I think all the students were surprised to find that it was "so close by!" And they all were told they could come back any time free of charge to any showings. 

        

After that trip, I made two more: one with the BB&N Comedy Club to a special Monty Python event at the Brattle, which was hilarious; the second with a group of about fifteen students to a showing of The Labyrinth, which about 3/4 had never seen, and who were honestly shocked and amazed and loving the bizarreness of it ("is this what the past was like?"). 

All of these trips have been due to the connections I made to the staff there -- prompted by this grant! I'm hoping to continue to take advantage of this neighborhood resource and try to tap into more of what our culturally rich location has to offer. 

Boston Speaker Series - Douglas Brinkley

Boston Speaker Series

Allison Kornet, US English Teacher and Faculty Advisor to The Vanguard

Vanguard article about the most recent Boston Speaker Series event with Douglas Brinkley:

http://vanguard.bbns.org/historian-talks-past-presidents-douglas-brinkley-examines-american-political-eras/

Gem & Mineral Exhibit

Amy Carey, MS Science Teacher

Michael Ewins, MS Science Teacher

Taylor Iberosi, MS Science Teacher

Wendy Svatek, MS Science Teacher and Department Head

    

During the 8th grade chemistry study, we spent some time looking at crystal lattice structures in ionic compounds, as well as physical properties that come about as a result of different bond types. We have also changed our program to include a lot more real-world applications of chemistry. The entire 8th Grade had the opportunity to explore the gems and minerals the Natural History Museum at Harvard University.

  

The exhibit at the Natural History Museum is outstanding in its scope and structure. It is the perfect opportunity for students to be able to see an incredible variety of minerals and put their new understanding of bonding and physical properties to use.

Boston Speaker Series - Zanny Minton Beddoes

Boston Speaker Series

Allison Kornet, US English Teacher and Faculty Advisor to The Vanguard

Maia Pandey, Claire Pingitore, Sophie Collins Arroyo ’19 in attendance on October 21st, 2019. Also my mom came, since a series of students kept claiming and then backing out of the fourth ticket at the last minute! Beddoes is the editor-in-chief of The Economist, and Vanguard editors Maia and Claire were definitely inspired by her. The stated purpose for her talk was to give us a sense of where the world economy is heading.

She talked about how the difference between the two sections of The Economist, the front housing political news and the back housing economic news, highlight a paradox we ought to consider. On the one hand, we see we are in the midst of a populist era with a lack of faith in traditional institutions, widespread anxiety about the future, “strong men” and authoritarian regimes on rise, the Western bloc under tremendous pressure, a mistrust among traditional allies, the benefits of free trade in question, globalism becoming a dirty word, and the U.S. so polarized that it seems like two totally different countries, even with respect to where we get our facts. On the other, we see very positive economic news. The last time the unemployment rate was this low was 1969, the economy has seen slow and steady growth, wages are rising, there’s no sign of inflation, tax cuts and deregulation seem to have given the U.S. a shot of adrenalin, the tariff war with China has not proven calamitous, etc. Beddoes laid out that although in the short term, the picture looks good, there are signs of system stresses further out, and shifts in technology, geopolitics, demographics, and climate tell the story. (Does prosperity belong to businesses more than workers? How do we manage the rapidly aging population, the “yold”? Will the U.S. and China find a way to work together?) She offered some recommendations.

The part of her talk that felt most relevant and interesting to BB&N’s aspiring journalists was when she discussed how The Economist has no bylines and is instead heavily edited for one unified perspective. Beddoes distinguished between having an opinion and having a bias. Yes, it would be hard to be a journalist at The Economist who didn’t believe in free trade; the magazine looks at a set of facts and responds to them with a clear and consistent viewpoint. But there is no bias in the presentation of the facts. All articles are subjected to intense fact checking so that there is real “empirical rigor” in the reporting. Beddoes went on to caution against the “bias of false equivalence,” where two opposing positions are presented as equally well-founded and compelling when, in light of the incontrovertible facts, they are not. She ended her talk by reminding the audience that without “a reasoned, fact-based debate of ideas,” we won’t find solutions to any of the problems identified.

Boston Speaker Series - John Kerry

Boston Speaker Series

Allison Kornet, US English Teacher and Faculty Advisor to The Vanguard

Geoffrey Goose, Elise Donovan, Alfie Rudnik, Josh Kim attended John Kerry's Boston Speaker Series Speech on October 10th, 2019.

Of interest to future Speechwriting and Public Speaking students (Elise and Alfie):

• He had this personal tick of putting his pointer finger to his nose. And early in the talk, he grabbed the mike and moved out from the lectern, closing the gap between him and the audience and saying, “I want to just talk.” It felt pretty contrived —a typical politician move— but it was also, as intended, engaging.
• He opened and closed with anecdotes; the first involved president Taft artfully deflecting a fat joke (a humor move to establish rapport) and the final involved Kerry giving CPR to a hamster that had fallen into the sea on the Cape (it came back to life). Needless to say, the kids enjoyed the closing anecdote more.
• Kerry established ethos throughout by referring to his personal experiences as a Vietnam vet and eventual protestor and as someone who has flown over the Artic Circle and seen the melt caused by climate collapse. He referred to personal experiences as secretary of state, interacting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and negotiating in various situations, e.g. for the Iran nuclear deal and for Israel to be recognized as a Jewish state.
• Substantively, he drew attention to his themes with sharp sound bites: “This is not a normal time” — “Our democracy is dysfunctional, and everybody knows it” — “How, today, can we be so passive about things that are really dangerous?” —  ‘People argue that things are rigged because they are’ — “Rhetoric is easy. saber rattling is easy. But it can have really bad consequences and can take you where you don’t want to go” — “In order to go to war, it pays to have some friends, and right now we don’t have them.”
• He also framed some problems with local examples that made our student listeners pay attention, for example naming the Woburn dump alongside the Love Canal and other toxic waste sites that produce cancer; asserting that the Acela train is supposed to be able to go 150mph, but it can only do so for an 18-mile stretch because infrastructure is so lousy, etc.
• At end, his speech became a call to action…
• “Politicians respond to you. Show them en masse that this is urgent. Children don’t hate. It’s taught. Tribalism is taught. Think of where we are, how many people were killed in the last century. We’re just journeyers. We get a chance to contribute.”
• …with informational pieces
• In our time, extreme poverty has gone from 50% to 10%
• The first generation of kids in Africa is about to be born aids-free
• …and an inspirational finale
• We stopped Ebola. We’re curing diseases we never thought we could. We communicate better. We live longer. Far fewer people are dying on this planet than ever before in history.”
• And antithesis for closure:
• “What we’re not doing is coalescing our will to make new progress.”

UCG Announcement, 2019-2020

UCG Announcement, 2019-2020

We are pleased to announce the following Urban Connection Grants for academic year 2019-2020. BB&N supports five grants this year, two new connections and three continuing programs. The new grant connections are currently being established and will be implemented throughout the school year. Each grant will connect BB&N students to groups and organizations throughout Cambridge, Boston and the Greater Boston Area.

Boston Speaker Series at Symphony Hall

Allison Kornet, US English Teacher and Faculty Advisor to The Vanguard

Up to 30 Upper School students will have the opportunity to attend part of the 2019-2020 Boston Speaker Series presented by Lesley University at Symphony Hall. This grant will mean seniors in the US Speechwriting and Public Speaking elective and upperclass writers and editors from The Vanguard can listen and learn firsthand from contemporary leaders and thinkers like Bob Woodward, Susan Rice and John Kerry. After presenting during the first hour of each event, speakers will respond to written questions submitted by audience members, so there is even an opportunity for direct engagement by BB&N students. Senior Speechwriting and Public Speaking students will mind how the pros deliver as closely as what they deliver, and the newspaper staff will follow up on the content of the talks with related reporting, investigation, or commentary in The Vanguard. All students participating in this grant will benefit from this unique Boston-based opportunity and experience the speaker series as an extension of their work at the Upper School.

http://www.bostonspeakersseries.org/

https://www.lisagenova.com/

http://www.gloriasteinem.com/

http://www.jonmeacham.com/

Brattle Theater Partnership

Zoe Balaconis, US English Teacher

This grant supports the relationship between BB&N students and the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square. The theater has been putting more effort into their educational outreach, providing an excellent opportunity to create this partnership. The theater offers private showings and tickets to class groups, as well as special access to Harvard Bookstore Readings. As a result of this grant, student groups will visit the theater, including students who haven't been to a theater in many years (or ever). The programming director will work with the students about archetypes and connections to their readings prior to the film. The Brattle Theater is a cultural gem so close to school, and BB&N Upper School students will finally be putting it to good use and getting off campus for a glimpse of the world beyond. 
https://www.brattlefilm.org/2020/02/05/45083/

Gem & Mineral Exhibit

Amy Carey, MS Science Teacher

Michael Ewins, MS Science Teacher

Taylor Iberosi, MS Science Teacher

Wendy Svatek, MS Science Teacher and Department Head

The goal of the Gem & Mineral Exhibit grant is to establish a new connection with the Harvard Museum of Natural History to support the 8^th grade chemistry curriculum. Since the MS science program has developed to include more real-world applications of chemistry, the museum will provide students with the opportunity to examine the extensive variety of minerals in person. Timed with their curriculum study, students will apply their new understanding of bonding and physical properties while exploring the museum exhibit. With participation from the entire MS science department, every 8^th grade student will benefit from this new Cambridge-based connection.

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/earth-planetary-sciences-gallery

A Collaboration between Beginners and the ICA Boston: Sense of Self and Belonging

Lucinda Burk, Beginner Homeroom Teacher

Cris West, Beginner Homeroom Teacher

Beginner teachers Cris and Lucinda, will collaborate with ICA Boston education team and program to find ways to utilize their exhibits in ways that are age-appropriate, meaningful and relatable to interests and lives of beginners students. The goal of this grant is to provide Beginner students multiple perspectives in gaining awareness and understanding of themselves and their ability to create and express their ideas in multiple ways. This collaboration will allow children to engage in critical thinking skills and do a deeper dive into their investigation of self and belonging as they enter a new place and learning community.
ICA Boston

The Latino Network

Dr. Rosario Sánchez Gómez, US Spanish Teacher and Spanish Department Coordinator

The Latino Network will connect BB&N Upper School students of Spanish with bilingual Latino organizations that work directly with Latin American immigrants in the Boston area. This grant aims to provide an opportunity for students to connect with the growing Spanish-speaking population, not only to be able to practice their linguistic and cultural skills but also to participate actively in their community. The Latino Network is currently working to establish partner organizations which will result in the creation of various projects for different Spanish courses as well as service learning opportunities available to all US students. Whether the students interview members of the community for different purposes or work hand in hand with the organization on a specific project, they will engage in a unique connection that aims to expands their course and community service work beyond their classrooms to include the local Latino communities in and around Boston.

http://www.cpresente.org/

http://www.laalianza.org/

http://muaboston.org/

https://www.casaesperanza.org/

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/