First Semester Electives

By Nasya H.

Every year, for the last 40 years, Project Learn School (PLS) students in Lisa’s group and the Jr. High have been allowed to take electives. The PLS students get to choose their electives each semester. Liam Gallagher, PLS Science and English teacher says, “Electives allow students to participate and choose a class to learn about.”  

  The students at PLS have electives on Mondays and Thursdays and Tuesdays and Fridays from 11:15am to 12:00pm. These classes are taught by some of the PLS teachers. This year the Monday/Thursday electives are Slam Poetry, French, Memoirs and The Eighth Grade Elective. The Tuesday/Friday electives are Forces & Motion, Chorus, Boot camp, Portfolio and Journalism. Here is a brief description of each of the first semester electives.

Slam Poetry

    Slam Poetry is usually when people compete over who has the best Poem. However, the PLS elective, taught by Jr. High teacher Aisha Anderson-Oberman, it’s about learning different kinds of poems and different ways to perform them. Aisha choose to teach this elective because she had some extra time this year and she wanted to do something she really likes doing. “I’m really enjoying working with the different age groups and I love hearing their poems,” says Aisha, “but it will be a challenge if I do this elective again, and if some of the same students joined along with new students, how will I teach them?”

Memoirs

    Memoirs is an elective about making a book and filling it with memories. This elective is taught by Joan Fox, Project Learn’s art teacher, and Lisa Pack, also a PL teacher.  This is Joan’s first time doing the elective but it was previously  taught before by former teacher, Cara Rulli. Joan got the idea of doing this elective in staff meeting, “When Lisa  said that she would do it with me, I knew this was a good idea.” Elie, a student in Lisa’s Group says, “I like that we get to make food and read books and make memoirs about them.”  Joan and Lisa hope to create a mini cookbook with favorite recipes from the kids and their memories  about those foods.  

Boot camp

    Boot camp is a life fitness program about using your body and having a healthy heart rate. This elective is taught by Project Learn’s office manager, Roni Anton. Roni wanted to do this elective because she loves to exercise and she thought it would be fun for kids. “I like seeing my students set goals and the reaching them; they feel good which makes me feel good,” says Roni. Roni would do this elective again because she’s really enjoying it but she would want to have more equipment. She also thinks some kids in her elective have a love-hate kind of feeling about it. Jhakur, a student in the Jr. High, says, “We do lots of workouts, like squats, push ups and burpees.”

Forces & Motion

    Forces & Motion is an elective taught by the Science and Literacy teacher at PLS, Liam Gallagher. It is about forces, motions, and engineering. Liam got the idea of teaching this elective because he got a science kit that he wanted to use and he knew lots of students would like to build things. “I like teaching forces and motion because it gives kids a chance to explore different kinds of engineering,” says Liam. This is  the first time Liam has done an elective like this and he says he would definitely do it again.

Portfolio

    Portfolio is a drawing elective taught by Joan Fox, the PL art teacher. Joan wanted to do this elective to help students who want to go to the Creative And Performing Arts High school (CAPA), Joan also works after school once a week with students applying to CAPA. Joan is deciding on whether  to have the kids do a specific lesson or let them set a drawing goal, like when she taught a former elective,  ‘Draw a day.’

French

   French is a language elective taught by the PLS math and music teacher Liz Ben-Yaacov. This elective about learning the French language and sharing it with others. Liz has  been speaking French since she was in high school and she went to France for a short period of time. Liz has taught the elective many times in the past and enjoys exposing students to a new language.

Journalism

  Journalism is an elective that gives kids an opportunity to write for a wider crowd and write about what’s happening at PLS.This elective is taught by Lisa Pack,PLS middle group teacher. Lisa started teaching this elective about 18 years ago when Donna Allender retired.  She feels that this is an important skill for kids and that it helps them become better writers. “Its really important for me to take the kid’s point of view into consideration. This year I thought it was important to change the way the paper is produced and so we have moved it into the virtual world. This is all new for me and I look forward to working alongside this  semester’s writers to figure this all out.”

Eighth Grade

    The eighth grade elective is an elective for the graduating class, that gives them a chance to work on things like, the Haunted House, the trip to Costa Rica and the eighth grade movie. This elective is taught by the PL Science and English teacher, Liam Gallagher. Liam wanted to teach this elective because he knew that the eighth graders needed the time to work together and there isn't a separate  eighth grade class this year . “I think it’s going well, and it provides the time we need,” says Liam. Gianna, an eighth grader says, “We do lots of work and we have really cool conversations.”

    Electives are an important part of the PLS educational philosophy. Allowing students the opportunity to have choice encourages greater participation, and helps them learn things that they may not learn in a different school.