Mustang Stampede Jan 2011

8/7/2019 Mustang Stampede Jan 2011

1/5

In This Issue college, this project was both a way to enjoy

the physical adventure of archaeology and to be

a part of the ongoing history of our rst Presi-

dents home.

While Synneva stayed in historic Virginia, senior

Jade Womack spend her summer at the Univer-

sity of Chicago where she parcipated in a class

in the Urban Studies Department. Jade was one

of only 14 high school students accepted out

of 400 applicants who got the opportunity to

take this class that covered topics ranging from

racial conicts in Chicago to urban planning and

the social aspects of how cies form. The class

structure was similar to that of an undergrad-uate-level college class with nightly homework

and reading assignment of 100 pages or more.

Despite the heavy workload, Jade felt incredibly

well prepared in relaon to other students in

aendance, thanks to Mrs. Chinchecks IB His-

tory class and other IB classes at Mason. Some

of the key class events at this program included

vising Stephan Douglass grave, discussing the

Haymarket Riot and the Pullman Strikes, and

even taking a trip to Florence Kellys Hull House.

Aer the homework and class trips, the classhad discussions and debates about the stascs

and eects of urban aspects on history. Overall,

Jade felt that this program was a wonderful way

to explore her passion for history in a city lled

with stories. (Adapted from a leer wrien by

Jade Womack)

Another Mason student who decided to pursue

an extraordinary history program over the

summer was senior Emily Dockery. When her IB

A Summer Full of

History, pg. 1

A Summer to

Remember, pg. 2

Mason Welcomes

New IBH English

Teacher, pg. 2

This is Not Gossip

Girl, pg. 3

The Beginning, pg. 3

Numbers Say it All,

pg. 4

Contributors, pg. 5

A Summer Full of HistoryBy Mahew Baker

Some George Mason (Mason) students spenttheir summer vacaons relaxing on the beach,

singing campre songs at summer camp, or even

working shis at a summer job. However, there

were three Mason seniors who found awesome

ways to enjoy their summer while following

their passions for connued learning in their

favorite subjecthistory.

Synneva Elthon was

overjoyed when

her IB History ofthe Americas teach-

er, Mrs. Chincheck

helped her nd an

out of the ordinary

summer opportu-

nity at one of the most historically acclaimed

houses in VirginiaMount Vernon. When it

was decided to reconstruct George Washingtons

library on his Mount Vernon grounds, Synneva

was chosen to carry out an archaeological dig,

while ensuring that no historical treasures

were destroyed in construcng the library. This

thorough project involved hands-on archaeo-

logical experience that lasted the enre sum-

mer. From right aer school ended, to the nal

day of August, Synneva worked at the Mount

Vernon archaeological site three days a week.

Throughout the delicate process, Synneva and

others found anque bits of coal, brick, wine

bole parts, china, and even fragments of bone.

To Synneva, who aspires to major in history in

1(A Summer Full of History, connued next page)


2/5

History teacher, Mrs. Chincheck presented the

opportunity to apply for a scholarship to aend

the Civil War Instute at Geysburg College,

Emily jumped at the chance. As part of the

applicaon, Emily submied an essay on the

bale of Anetam that she had wrien in her

IB History class. At the end of the school year,

she was awarded the scholarship. The last week

in June, Emily travelled to Geysburg Collegewhere she and other students stayed in the col-

leges dorms. The week long program included

two to three history lectures a day with civil

war historians, trips to Geysburg baleeld

and Fords Theater, and even the opportunity to

meet the acclaimed historian Edward Bearass,

the former Chief Historian of the Naonal Park

Service. Like Synneva, Emily aspires to major

in history in college, and while it may not be a

Civil War focus, she greatly enjoyed her summer

learning experience at Geysburg College.

As demonstrated, opportunies arise for IB

students every single day, even in the summer;

and passion and determinaon, along with a

lile help from great IB teachers, can get you

anywhere.

A Summer to RememberCrawford Taylor goes Above and

Beyond for CASBy Jessica Lim and Hannah Walker

IB Diploma candidates are required to connue

their Creavity, Acon, and Service (CAS) acvi-

es over the summer, but many George Mason

students dont just do CAS acvies for the sake

of doing it; they go above and beyond. Crawford

Taylor, a current senior of the class of 2011, is

just one of those students.

This summer,Crawford spent

four weeks in

Indonesia where

he worked on

various service

projects in Jakarta

and Padang, lucky

enough to travel there thanks to an extremely

generous family friend. During his trip, Crawford

taught English, helped with medical examina-

ons in prisons and distributed food to those in

need, in addion to helping out with whatever

else was necessary. In Padang, Crawford not

only served the people there, but he took a cre-

ave approach and helped to teach origami as

well as taking part in construcng a new school

there.

Crawford got to experience what it was like tolive in another country and learned from it,

Theres a lot of poverty in Jakarta and it was

quite shocking. Thankfully, I was able to work

with people trying to remedy the vast gap in the

distribuon of wealth, he said.

A unique way of fullling CAS, Crawford Taylor

not only had a great experience over the sum-

mer but learned lessons of a life me; an accom-

plishment many would be lucky to follow.

Mason Welcomes New IBHEnglish Teacher!By Mollie Breen

For the 2010-

2011 school year,

George Mason

High Schools (Ma-

son) welcomes

new IBH English

teacher, Melissa

Raeder. Although she is new this year to Mason,

Mrs. Raeder is not new to teaching. She actually

worked as an eleventh grade English teacher

right here at George Mason for seven years be-

fore she got a job at Madeira, an all-girls private

school, where she taught ninth grade English

and senior elecves for two years.

When she rst heard of the IB program her

inial reacon was appreciave. She likes

the concepts IB is built around and that it

extends crical thinking. However, as with

many teachers here at George Mason, she is

also concerned that there is too much work

for students. Nonetheless, Mrs. Raeder does

her best to balance a regular curriculum with IB

standards.

When asked to compare her experiences be-

tween teaching a ninth grade English class and

2(New IBH English Teacher, connued next page)

(A Summer Full of History, connued)


3/5

3

(New IBH English Teacher, connued)

an IB English class, Mrs. Raeder most profoundly

noced that in IB classes students are given

more responsibility in discussions and choice in

work. Moreover, IB teachers themselves have

more liberty when choosing texts and if ap-

propriate, the freedom to choose a text that is

controversial; a freedom she would not have if

she did not belong to the IB program.

As always, when a fresh face arrives at Mason

he or she also brings something to add to the

community, as well as ideas of how to bet-

ter a program. In Mrs. Raeders experience

at a private school, she noced the dierence

in teaching smaller classes averaging nine to

ten people, poinng out that it led to more

student-to-teacher contact that beneed both

a students and teachers relaonship and the

class as a whole. Also, she adds that shorter

classes provide students with an incenve to fo-cus more intensely for a shorter period of me,

rather than sing through a longer class.

Mrs. Raeder is a great addion to the Mason

faculty and thus, to the IBH English teachers. We

look forward to a great year!

This is Not Gossip Girl!False Rumors and Misconceptons

About IBBy Mahew Irvine and Alex Valenno

At the end of each

school year, mem-

bers of the sopho-

more class have

the opportunity to

become IB Diploma

candidates. Many

misconcepons

about the programare formed in the

minds of students, but some other false as-

sumpons are not immediately evident. One of

the least apparent but most important of these

false assumpons is that to be an IB Diploma

candidate, one must be a straight-A student.

In reality, students can and will be successful in

the IB Diploma Program even without having

perfect grades. Although IB classes are challeng-

ing, they are not impossible; with hard work

and good me management skills, a dedicated

student will do ne as an IB Diploma candidate.

In addion, another misconcepon about

what is required as part of being an IB Diploma

candidate, is the amount of me required for

each of the three parts of CAS, and that a log of

every acvity that the student parcipates in is

required in order to counts as CAS. This is false.In reality, although there are set minimums for

how much me you must spend doing each

part of CAS, there is no need to keep a me log

of these acvies. This is because CAS acvi-

es must extend over a lengthy period of me

and require a rm and clear dedicaon, such as

working on a service project, playing an acve

role in a club, or parcipang in a Mason sport.

As long as it is clear that one is parcipang

acvely in all parts of CAS, students are sasfy-

ing their CAS requirements and there is no needfor a me log.

Although stress and ancipaon are normal for

rising juniors, Mr. Misra and current IB students

are eager to address quesons and clear up

misconcepons about the program.

The BeginningStudents Start CAS

By Lia Caaneo

This years junior class is excited to embark on

their IB Diploma journeys. Creavity, Acon,

and Service (CAS) plays a major role in the

development of IB world thinkers and juniors

Claire Constance, Zeev Lailari, and Danny

Seidita have already begun working on their CAS

projects.

A few days ago, I received a leer in the mail

from Claire, asking me to support her in reaching

her CAS goals. Incorporang both Acon

and Service, Claires project also addresses

many of the smaller learning objecves of

CAS. Through her parcipaon, Claire hopes

to increase awareness and support for Falls

Churchs sister city in Democrac Republic of

Congo, Kokolopori, by running in the Sister

Cies Internaonal 5K Race for World Peace.

She would like members of the community

to sponsor her in her endeavor, and all of the

(The Beginning connued, next page)


4/5

4

(The Beginning, connued)

money will

go to pay for

a doctors

salary. Clear

cut goals are

an important

aspect of CAS,

and Claire

hopes to raise $5,000 for her cause as well aschallenge herself to get a fast me in the race.

Aer running the race in October, Claire says

she will connue to work as a liaison between

George Mason and the Sister City Foundaon.

Zeev Lailari and Danny Seidita were inspired

during their IBHL English class to nd a way for

Mason students to parcipate in rhetoric, an

important and rapidly growing eld. Together,

Zeev and Danny came up with the idea to start

a Rhetoric Club. In order to expand the scopeof their club, they have decided to register

with the Virginia Speech and Debate club. If

anyone is interested in joining Zeev and Danny,

they would be ecstac to have new members

who are willing to engage them in speech and

debate. If you are interested in joining the

Rhetoric Club, please contact Danny or Zeve for

more informaon.

As can be seen, Claire, Zeev and Danny have

already goen a good head start on their

projects and with the help of teachers and

friends, so can everyone else.

The Numbers Say It AllReview of a Survey on the Extended

Essay

By Gemma Seidita

For many diploma candidates, the Extended

Essay is one of the most excing, but also most

stressful components required for aaining an

IB Diploma. On one hand, the Extended Essay

allows students to thoroughly explore topics

they are interested in, outside the constraints

of what may or may not fall into their day-to-

day curriculum. However, on the other, a 4,000

word research paper is a 4,000 word research

paper and compleng that on top of regular

IB coursework, college applicaons, and other

acvies outside of school is denitely no easy

feat.

There is hope. I compiled a survey and learned

that roughly one-third of the diploma candidates

completed the process of wring the Extended

Essay (EE) rough dra, and despite all of the

Facebook statuses equang the EE to (insert

a bunch of bad stu here), the majority of the

responses to the survey about the EE were very

posive. Instead of an in-depth analysis of thesurvey in its enrety, I thought the most striking

components were the numerical data and the

comments about the overall experience of

wring the paper.

In terms of raw numbers, the number of hours

spent researching and wring were collected

and the data was fairly spread out, which

isnt surprising considering the subject areas

surveyed ranged from physics, math, English,

Spanish, French, history, theatre and psychology.For the number of hours spent researching,

the most common amount of me spent

researching was between 15 and 25 hours,

earning 50 percent, while the least common

amounts of me were less than 15 hours and

more than 40 hours, which each earned 8.3

percent of the vote. Once it actually came me

to write the essay, 33.3 percent of the students

surveyed wrote for 5-10 hours and 15-20 hours,

respecvely. Fortunately, none of the student

surveyed spent over 20 hours wring the rough

dra of the EE.

When asked to

rate the overall

experience of

wring the EE,

on a scale of

1 to 10 (with

10 being an

absolutely

valuable experience and 1 being a worthless

experience), 75 percent of the students

surveyed gave the EE a rang of 7 or above,

with 8 being the most common rang. Many

candidates wrote that the EE gave them the

opportunity to explore something they were

very interested in and receive credit, and that

the sense of accomplishment they felt aer

compleng the rst dra made the process

feel like it was well worth it. The candidates

(The Numbers Say it All connued, next page)


5/5

(The Numbers Say it All, connued)

also oered some advice, naturally the most

common piece being dont procrasnate!;

and aer being asked what they wish they had

done dierently, almost all of the candidates

menoned starng research sooner, or even

nishing it by junior year, making an organized

outline, reading the rubric, nishing research

before starng the paper, and being sure to

cite everything while wring the paper. Thereis no doubt tha the EE is a taxing and dicult

endeavor, but in the end it is also an incredibly

valuable and rewarding experience, just wait

and see.

Contributors

Editor-in-Chief/Layout and Design

Elle Silverman

Student Editors

Rosalyn Kaddache

Gemma Seidita

IB Board Members & Contribung Writers

Seniors

Mahew Baker

Mollie Breen

Rosalyn Kaddache

Jessica Lim

Gemma SeiditaElle Silverman

Hannah Walker

Elizabeth Womack

Juniors

Lia Caaneo

Chris Earman

Mahew Irvine

Michael Irvine

Alex Valenno

For more informaon, quesons, or comments,

please contact Mr. Asheesh Misra, IBCoordinator at: [email protected]

5
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

Documents

Mustang Stampede Jan 2011