The Stuyvesant Spectator

Check Out Those Curves

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:49:52 +0000

“Mrs. Smith for history? Oh god! Her tests are impossible—you’re going to fail. But you’re lucky to have Mr. Jones for math. You’ll get a high 90 no matter how poorly you do on his tests.”

At Stuyvesant, this is how many conversations about teachers and their classes go. Often, you either receive a good, easy teacher, or you end up with the hardest class you’ll ever take. Teaching, testing and grading methods vary greatly from teacher to teacher. Few will deny that a report card grade at least partly depends on the difficulty of the teacher. Consequently, many grades inaccurately represent students’ true effort or intelligence, which could limit their ability to take advanced classes or even get into desired colleges.

Basing grades on a standard would be more fair. But teachers’ methods can’t be standardized, since they may have good reasons for their different teaching and testing styles. One might firmly believe in precise answers in math problems, while another might care more about the work shown—and so they would differ in how much partial credit they give. Forcing teachers to conform to a standard style would remove their freedom in teaching, which would rob students of a diverse learning experience.

Therefore, standards must be derived from elsewhere: the students. Since each class generally contains over 30 students, its statistics are a fair representation of the average student. For example, if a class averages 87 on a certain test, then 87 is likely close to the “real” average—that is, the theoretical average from a class of standard Stuyvesant students, without any anomalies such as child prodigies or terrible test-takers. Test scores can be standardized according to this average, as well as a histogram of students’ scores, which would roughly form a bell-shaped curve. These so-called curved grades are determined relative to the “average” student. For example, if both you and the average student failed, then you really didn’t do so poorly; this would be shown in the bell curve if your score falls near the center of the bulge. This effectively adjusts the grades so that they won’t depend so much on the difficulty of the teacher.

Unfortunately, some teachers incorrectly think that curves will inflate grades, so they won’t use them. But adding, for example, 10 points to everyone’s score is not a true curve. Curved grading is based on the bell curve, the distribution of the raw scores of every student. A student’s percentile in this curve would be transformed into the curved grade, similar to grades for Advanced Placement and SAT exams. The new scores are therefore relative to the rest of the class, and by extension, the average Stuyvesant student.

If the class did very poorly because the test or teacher was too difficult, the curve would readjust the scores accordingly. The average, which might have been 62, would be shifted to something more reasonable—maybe 80 or 85, depending on what teachers agree upon. Also, the distribution could become more spread out or brought together, depending on the “skinniness” of the bell. So a student who got a 60 might really deserve an 80, while a student who got a 90 could deserve just a 92. On the other hand, if the test were fair (say, for the 87 average mentioned before), the curved grades would be close to the raw grades. For a test that’s too easy, a student who got a 95 might only be given an 85. Thus, a student’s grades depend on how exceptional the student is, not the quality of the teacher.

The collection of raw and curved grades can also be helpful to the teachers and departments. If the raw scores were far below curved scores, the teacher and the department would realize that either the test was too hard, or the material wasn’t taught well. Once it is clear that the students on average did poorly, the teaching style can then be revised. Similarly, a test or teacher that is too easy will be reflected by how much higher the raw scores are over the curved scores.

Although there are other means of standardizing teaching and testing—for example, teachers can communicate within their departments to regulate grades that are harder to quantify, such as those for essays—few semester grades will truly represent the student until most test scores are curved. Teachers need to be aware of the statistics behind curving and, for efficiency and ease, the means to curve with computer software. Otherwise, every student’s future could be hindered by the misfortune of coming across a notoriously hard teacher.

GLASS : Educating Stuyvesant on Gender Issues

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:48:51 +0000

Among the clubs in Stuyvesant that are dedicated to the appreciation of chocolate and Dance Dance Revolution, there are also more serious clubs. Gay Lesbian and Straight Spectrum (GLASS), started in 1990, is a club dedicated to the understanding of what is means to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT).
GLASS is “partially a support group, but more of an activist platform and an education forum,” senior and president Allegra Wiprud said. “Its purpose is to increase awareness and understanding of queer students and hopefully increase acceptance.”
In order to reach this objective, GLASS supervises Days of Action, such as the Day of Silence, and Ally week, which occurred during the week of Monday, October 19, this year. On these days, GLASS sets up a table on the bridge and by the cafeteria where people are free to ask any questions they might have about GLASS and the LGBT community in general.
These days of action serve three main purposes: “to let kids who aren’t ‘out,’ either about gender or sexuality, know that they have allies; to inspire discussions amongst the student body about that specific topic, such as Day of Silence; [and] to actively reveal our beliefs to the general public, either to start a discussion or encourage sensitivity about a subject and bring attention to a topic,” junior and vice president Kimberly Lawrence said.
In addition to these days of action, GLASS also brings in speakers to hold discussions on topics ranging from gender theory to acceptance to youth suicide. Past speakers include Kiwi Grady, the Community Initiatives Associate at the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, Kate Bornstein, an author of Gender Outlaw and My Gender Workbook, and Matthew Brady, who gave a lecture entitled ‘Gay America, Then and Now.’
Most meetings are discussion-based and revolve around a chosen issue, such as the definition of gender and what it means to be LGBT in today’s world. GLASS also collaborates with SPARK—every other week the two organizations hold discussion groups on gender and transgender. Head SPARK counselor Angel Colon is also co-faculty advisor of GLASS, along with English teacher Megan Breslin. This link helps these joint meetings run smoothly.
Despite these weekly meetings, some students feel that GLASS isn’t doing enough to educate the Stuyvesant Community. Although GLASS does run a table on days of action, it’s difficult to spread awareness among a student body of over 3,000 students.
“In my three years at Stuyvesant I have not heard, nor seen much of GLASS’ work,” junior Yana Azova said. “GLASS could also publicize its meetings to get more students involved. Another tactic that works well is to create events that do not require attendees to be a member of the organization. This way more people can be affected and greater changes can be made.”
At the end of the day, the club has a specific purpose. “GLASS,” Wiprud said, “helps to bridge the gap between heteronormative people and the rest of us. We try to make Stuy a little more understanding than it might otherwise have been.”

Simple, Genius Haikus

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:47:56 +0000

Cor van den Heuvel is an American haiku poet and editor who has received various awards for his writing and editing of haiku books. He was the former president of the Haiku Society of America. He also served as the poetry editor of Newsweek Magazine until he retired in 1988. He is best known as the editor of the three editions of “The Haiku Anthology,” which is often used as the base for contemporary haikus. On Tuesday, October 6, van der Heuvel visited Stuyvesant.
English teacher Emily Moore invited van den Heuvel to speak to her second and 10th period poetry classes after meeting him at a National Arts Club poetry reading. At the reading, she recognized van den Heuvel as the man pictured on “The Haiku Anthology,” and began conversing with him and invited him to speak at the school.
In the Stuyvesant library on October 6, the poet began the reading with a haiku in a soft-spoken voice: “A bitter morning: / Sparrows sitting together / Without any necks.” Van den Heuvel suggested that this example reveals many of the misconceptions surrounding haikus. It uses the 17 syllable form (five-seven-five) frequently thought to be characteristic of haikus, but van den Heuvel explained that the number of syllables in a haiku is irrelevant because English is so different from Japanese. Thus, the form does not necessarily translate into English. He also explained how similes and metaphors often convolute the images of haikus, and the form is best kept simple.

To give the audience an idea of what a haiku should offer, Van den Heuvel related haiku writing to Jack Kerouac’s novel “Dharma Bums.” In the novel, as the narrator and the character Japhy, a thinly disguised portrait of the beat poet Gary Snyder, travel up a mountain, the two try to make sense of what a haiku is. Japhy tells the narrator that, “A real haiku’s gotta be as simple as porridge and yet make you see the real thing.”
Japhy uses a haiku written by Masaoka Shiki to give an example: “The sparrow hops along the veranda, with wet feet.” Van den Heuvel commented that the poem evokes the imagination of the reader. While given an image of the sparrow with wet feet, we can also imagine the rain from the previous day and the smell of pine needles. The simplicity and suggestiveness of that haiku is what makes it superb.

At this point in the lecture, the poet with wispy white hair and a full beard stopped to pull out a Maine baseball cap and a brightly illustrated book titled “Baseball Haiku,” edited by poet Nanae Tamura and himself. The transition from nature haikus to baseball haikus seems bizarre but Van den Heuvel reassures us that, “baseball is perfect for a haiku.”
The first baseball haiku was written by Masaoka Shiki in 1890, though it was not until 1958 that baseball haikus appeared in English. He reads an example from Kerouac: “Empty baseball field / — A robin / Hops along the bench.”
He ended the poetry reading with a haiku of his own: “Dispute at second base, the catcher lets some dirt run through his fingers.” With no time left, he offered no explanation and left it up to the imaginations of audience members.

“What he said about the differences between classical haikus—counting syllables, Japanese—and then English and the differences that kind of come over, I hadn’t really known about and found really interesting. It was cool to think about writing haikus differently,” said senior Mariana Quinn-Makwaia, who heard about the event through her English class.
“[The haiku written by Shiki] was particularly beautiful and uses really really simple words,” senior Jean Raphael Cornel said. “The idea that a haiku is not supposed to be something that specific, that half of the understanding of the poem should be the reader’s responsibility really blew me away. I just never thought of haikus with that purpose.”

“He had a whole theory about how baseball had all the essence of a haiku, which was a strange correlation. That was cool,” senior Kyla Alterman said. “The thing is, he could’ve been really interesting but just the way he speaks, which is really quiet and subdued, didn’t really engage me.”
“I think it’s wonderful for students to see examples of artists and people who have made lives in the arts and lives as writers. And I think it’s also great to hear poetry by people who have written it,” Moore said.

Home-Made Haunts

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:45:57 +0000

As Halloween draws near, the search for an original, wacky costume begins. But stores can be expensive, group costumes are a hassle to work out, and everyone else is going to dress up as an emo kid or a princess fairy. We came up with a few suggestions for recession-friendly costumes that are easy to make at home.

The Present

For the artistically challenged, the Present is a great costume. It’s easy to make, as long as you can use scissors and tape. First, take a large box to fit into and cut holes for your arms and legs with a knife. Get some crazy wrapping paper and neatly wrap the box. Find some ribbon and attach it to a headband or sweatband in a bow-shaped formation. But be warned that wearing a box for an entire day makes it difficult to sit and move around.

If the present suggestion doesn’t float your boat, a large box can be used to make other types of costumes. A robot can be built out of a few boxes in the same manner and painted silver. One could also dress up as a “cereal box”—just cut up cereal boxes and paste them onto a larger box.

The Jellyfish

For those looking to make a simple and comfortable costume, the Jellyfish is ideal. Get a clear or pink umbrella and some pink and clear cellophane paper. Simply cut strips out of the cellophane paper and layer a pink strip over a clear strip. Then attach the doubled-up strips to the umbrella, until the umbrella is covered with strips all around. The umbrella serves as the body while the cellophane is its tentacles. You might want to wear jelly-fish style color clothing such as pink shirts, pants, or tights.

A more complicated costume using an umbrella would be a Batman costume. Make Batman-style wings by breaking the wires of an umbrella along with the handle to create a wing-esque looking shape. Attached to a black outfit, it is a new touch to the traditional Batman costume.

Clump of Grapes

This costume is simply an attention grabber. Blow up between 10 to 15 dark purple, green, or red balloons. Tie them all to one string. Wear a color that compliements the color of the “grapes.” Wrap the string with the balloons around the body and tie it securely where the string can be easily reached. Watch out for sharp objects! A costume with balloons might not last throughout the day, however. Bring extra balloons with you to fix your costume if they start to pop! Also, sitting down may be difficult. But seriously, everyone will love this costume.

The balloons could also be used to create a bubble bath costume or hot air balloon costumes. For these, a box is used as the base and balloons attached to the top. One could try to recreate the house from the movie “Up” which had thousands of balloons protruding from the chimney.

Seasons

Everyone has his or her favorite season, so why not dress up as one? For fall, start with a shirt and pants or skirt in warm colors. Go to a craft store and buy fake leaves, twigs, etc. Take the leaves and twigs and pin them onto your clothes securely with safety pins. Save a few leaves and, with bobby pins, pin the leaves in your hair. With eye or lip liner draw leaves on your face. For summer or spring, the colors should be pastels and green, and instead of leaves and twigs, substitute in fake flowers. For winter, dress in all white and get white glitter for your hair and skin, and tape cotton balls all over your clothes and bobby-pin them in your hair.

Your Very Own Superhero

Instead of dressing as Batman, Spiderman, or Wonder woman, create your own superhero! Start by wearing two or three colors. Keep it simple. Include a t-shirt, shorts, and leggings. Add personal touches with a headband, bracelet or cape, all of which you can decorate according to your colors. Based on your superhero, add in a unique accessory like an instrument, for a musical superhero, or a basketball for a sports-oriented hero. Keep it personalized.

The Shopaholic

With the recession limiting our shopping budgets, many people have had to cut back on shopping. For Halloween, maybe dress as a shopaholic. Go around to your favorite clothing stores and ask for a bag from each store. Once you get home, grab a shirt and pants or skirt in the same color as each other. You don’t want to distract from the bags. Tape the smaller bags directly on your clothing. For the larger bags it might be easier to cut the logo off the bag and tape it on your clothing. Save a few bags to carry in your hands.

Ghastly Prices

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:44:56 +0000

The freak-out is imminent. What happens when Halloween is just a few days away and you still haven’t found a costume? You’ve searched the online stores, but there’s a difference between seeing your dream outfit on an airbrushed model and seeing it in real life. At this time of year, there are hundreds of costume stores open across the city—some just for the season—but very few offer reasonable prices. And in the economic downturn, stumbling upon the perfect bargain by chance is unlikely.

But remember that this is New York. There are a multitude of stores less than 20 minutes away from Stuyvesant by subway that offer excellent deals on Halloween costumes.

Party City (38 West 14th Street) is pretty much a one-stop shop. They carry Halloween items throughout the year, but in October their stock is dominated by Halloween decorations, makeup and costumes. The massive costume isle stretches the length of the store, and this branch of the chain attracts hoards of customers. But if you’re able to brave the mayhem, fantastic deals can be uncovered. Male costumes such as the Toga, Party Clown and Ghost Rider run for a mere $19.99. Female costumes are a little more expensive, but there are still some inexpensive deals—the popular Marilyn Monroe ensemble costs $19.99, as do outfits depicting an angel, a cavewoman and Cleopatra. There are some more interesting costumes for only $24, like the Gothic Fairy Princess and Hollywood devil. Most of the costumes are priced between $30 and $50. But if you really want something special, you can always go for the $999 Aloha Elvis. Target (the nearest branch is at 139 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn) has a similar supply of costumes for about the same prices.

If you have the patience and artistic foresight, stores such as Goodwill (186 2nd Avenue, between 11th and 12th streets) can be a godsend. “I can find lots of stuff here,” said Linda Martinez, longtime customer and mother of two. “My daughter wants to be a hippie, so I found a pair of bellbottoms and a t-shirt with tie-dye. Some of the clothing is amazing because it looks like no one has ever worn it or has worn it once.”

Martinez also commented on the financial benefits of Goodwill. “I can’t afford to go wild on Halloween,” she said. “I can get out of [Goodwill], sometimes, with a pair of pants, a shirt, a dress, maybe some party shoes, for under 30 dollars.” Best of all, your money goes to a good cause—the majority of profits goes to training disabled or disadvantaged adults for the workforce.

While Gothic Renaissance (108 4th Avenue, between 11th and 12th Sstreets) offers a narrow range of products, it is another great costume resource. Advertised on its Web site as “New York’s premier gothic fashion boutique,” Gothic Renaissance stocks a vast supply of gothic wears imported from countries such as England and Japan. As a specialty shop, the store’s prices are higher than those of chains like Party City.

“Everything is pretty high quality,” assistant manager Laramie Wilcox said. “Our price ranges on clothing tend to range from 50 dollars to 500 dollars.” Apparel on sale is sold for between 30 and 70 percent of its original price.

“If a student is looking for a particular good piece that can really make a Halloween costume, like a corset, which can really set it off, they can get it here and the rest of it they can get anywhere else,” Wilcox said.

If you’re willing to pay a little more for your costume, check out Abracadabra (19 West 21st Street). The store offers a massive selection, selling everything from screaming lawn ornaments to genuinely terrifying monster masks. Even the store’s ambiance—the aisles are close and the store is dimly lit—add to an authentic Halloween experience. Even if prices are somewhat steeper, Abracadabra is worth a browse.

Finding the perfect costume for a reasonable price may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. At the right store, you can let your creativity run wild without worrying about the cost. Halloween is supposed to be fun, so embrace the challenge, and remember: the price doesn’t have to be as scary as the costume.

Bright Lights, Dull Game: Peglegs Drop Homecoming

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:44:02 +0000

Students proudly wore their Stuyvesant Woo-Peg-Sooie shirts as they crowded into Pier 40, ready to witness an exciting homecoming and a game that could bring the Peglegs, Stuyvesant’s varsity football team, to a .500 record. The atmosphere surrounding Friday night’s game against the Lafayette Patriots was indeed electric—the results, however, were far from thrilling.

The Peglegs had the advantages of playing on their home turf in front of a multitude of faithful and enthusiastic Stuyvesant fans and having an opponent that was having a 32-game losing streak. The Peglegs were unable to emerge victorious from the gridiron, however, and suffered a devastating 9-7 defeat during the Homecoming weekend.

“Personally I feel that we didn’t show enough heart,” senior and lineman Athiththan Selvendran said. Whether it was heart or mere execution on the football field, the Peglegs lost a game that many believed was a must-win if the team was to have any hope of being in the playoffs.

Instead of pulling even at .500, the loss on Friday dropped the Peglegs to 2-4—a disappointing record for a season that started off with so much promise. The tone of the game was set on the very first play, when Lafayette senior and wide receiver Troy Greaves returned the kickoff for an impressive 76 yards, plowing through the Stuyvesant special teams until he was finally taken down at the Peglegs’ 15-yard line. Even with attempts to keep the Stuyvesant fans in the game, the life was sucked out of the crowd after Greaves’ lengthy kick return.

The Peglegs didn’t do anything to keep their fans entertained, racking up a total of 60 yards in penalties. “We made way too many costly stupid plays,” senior and kicker Michael Affuso said, referring specifically to a 3rd quarter unnecessary roughness penalty called on Selvendran.

It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly led to the Peglegs’ embarrassing loss to a team that had a roster of only 17 players. Whether there was too much hype and pressure to win on Homecoming, or the players felt that they would just coast with an easy win over the struggling Patriots, they were unable to convert. However, according to head coach Mark Strasser, none of these were the reasons for his team’s unimpressive performance on Friday.

“[The Patriots] went hard and had the will to win more than we did,” Strasser said. “We are a better team than what we showed Friday, we have to get back on track and show every team we aren’t a team to be made fun of.”

During any football season, a team will go through rigorous practices several times a week, whether they just lost to the New England Patriots or the Lafayette Patriots. The Peglegs, however, will also need to recover mentally from last week’s devastating defeat. Unfortunately, the team suffered another defeat to Petrides High School on Friday, October 16, 29-6. Although Petrides, a 5-1 team, was a much more talented team than Lafayette, it was still a crushing loss for the Peglegs as they struggle for a playoff bidberth.

If it wishes to win its next three games and finish the season at .500, the Peglegs will need to study what went wrong on Friday and try to correct any mistakes. The members of the team also feel that they need to put the game behind them if they are going to have a strong finish to the season. “We got to forget about homecoming and try to win all our last four games,” Selvendran said.

It will be difficult, though, for the Peglegs to put such a disappointing a game behind them. The Peglegs fell short in a game they should have won, scoring only once on a 2nd quarter rushing touchdown by junior Michael Bucaoto. Friday’s game seemed to be an indicator of Stuyvesant’s thus far disappointing season. The problem for the Peglegs has never been about a lack of talent or a lack of support from the student body, but rather an inability to translate that talent and support into winning on the field.

If there is one positive thing that the Peglegs can take from Friday’s loss, it is that no team can ever be counted out. If the Lafayette Patriots can muster a victory in the hostile environment of Pier 40 with several hundred Stuyvesant fans breathing down their necks, then the Peglegs can certainly finish off the 2009 season with pride.

“We aren’t a team to be made fun of,” Selvendran said. Perhaps he is right—now is the time for the Peglegs to convert the talent they possess into wins for the team.

Numbers

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:42:54 +0000

1
Umbrella

9
Sweaters

1
Pair of Pants

3
Hats

2
2008-2009 Stuyvesant Planners

1
2009-2010 Stuyvesant Planners

8
Socks

Returning to Eloquence

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:42:03 +0000

Awesome, lmao, brb, like yea, mhmm, and other such “words” and “phrases” are what an average Stuyvesant student writes on a daily basis. But as we start to think in these inarticulate sound bytes, we should be thanking the administration for pulling us over these hurdles of ineloquence before it is too late. When simply instant messaging friends or having a conversation, our sentences too often fall along the lines of “Really awesome,” or “It was like so cool!” simply because we are at a loss for how else to express ourselves with our limited vocabularies. Though many students may grumble about the Writing Across the Curriculum policy, they will surely find that being able to express thoughts and ideas eloquently is a skill to treasure when in a college environment, in the workplace, and in life.

In many classes, students are expected to do no more than write a couple of words as an answer or, more commonly, fill in a bubble in a multiple-choice question. We rely on textbooks to explain the concepts we are learning. Teachers, who write out lesson plans, are able to effectively explain new ideas, but we are not expected to articulate these ideas ourselves. Without continually practicing writing in classes, students are unable to write with ease, causing them to spend hundreds of dollars on a college essay-writing seminar or on SAT prep. Not only would this wasteful spending be prevented if we all knew how to write in the first place, but perhaps our essays would be a bit more creative and sound different from those of other people who paid for the same service.

People laugh at the idea of writing papers in a math or science class, but they fail to consider the necessity of writing in the workplace. If you enter a career in science, you need to write grant proposals to get funding and write articles in scientific journals to share your ideas with others in the field. Every scientist needs to follow detailed instructions for his or her experiments on a daily basis in order to obtain reliable results. If you go into economics, you need to be able to write reports about market trends.

Writing has been an indispensable tool for historians as well because a large portion of our historical records are from primary sources. And consider our politicians who cannot get through a single day without having to voice their opinions about pivotal issues. Barack Obama’s campaign would not have been nearly as effective if he did not write some of his most crucial speeches, such as the one addressing race issues in America.

Not every field requires you to write your average English essay, but you still need to be able to effectively communicate your thoughts to others. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, teenagers and their parents said that “good writing is a bedrock for future success.” The president of the College Board, Gaston Caperton, said it is “a matter of being competitive internationally.”

In these early stages of Writing Across the Curriculum, we should take measures to fine-tune the program and find ways to make it run smoothly in our school—not get rid of it. The importance of such a policy needs to be stressed to Stuyvesant teachers. Instead of ridiculing it, we should think of ways to best incorporate writing into our classes.

Assignments can be small, like short answer questions to see if students can explain concepts in their own words, or they can be full-length essays. A math teacher, for example, can ask students for a written explanation of a solution to ensure that they can articulate what they learned or be able to apply math to everyday life. Many students don’t realize that we learn theorems and formulas not just to get the answer right on a test, but also to use them in other fields like architecture or accounting. In a science class, students may be asked to write an experiment or a report on new scientific discoveries. Such assignments can spark students’ interests in the subject.

The administration can review various teachers’ ideas and assistant principals can work with teachers to choose which assignments are most interesting and beneficial. These assignments can then be required for all students taking the subject. Making Writing Across the Curriculum work in our school will ensure that we graduate as well-rounded, articulate students prepared for whatever comes our way.

Writhing Across the Ridiculum

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:40:44 +0000

The headline of this article is the rather unaffectionate nickname ascribed, by a few, to the Writing Across the Curriculum policy, which was implemented last year to improve the writing ability of the student body. Essays should no longer be reserved for English class, and math and science teachers should now begin assigning short in-class writing assignments—supposedly .

Although last year happened to be Writing Across the Curriculum’s first year, I didn’t receive many non-humanities assignments that involved writing. While I was taught the material very well, there were no essays in any of my science and math classes (except for Math Research, but writing a paper was the focus of the class). As expected, there were lab report questions in biology, and in math I did have to write out proofs, but there was not much else out of the ordinary.

At first, I thought I may have been an exception, but upon asking around, many other students had similar experiences. When asked if he had received many non-humanities writing assignments last year, junior Sam Furnival said, “No, none at all.” Posed with the same question, sophomore Sany Begum said, “Err, nope. I don’t really remember if there was any writing for any of those classes except for lab reports.”

Sophomore Lilja Walter replied that she did recall one assignment in which students had to summarize and reflect on 10 scientific articles. When asked if she thought this assignment improved her writing ability or broadened her knowledge of the subject, she said, “Helped me to write? No. Writing is writing. It was the same as writing an essay in English class. I guess you could say it helped my knowledge, but writing for science, I almost always had to stop and look things up on the Internet that we hadn’t learned. I barely ever remembered these things that I looked up, nor did I ever need to.”

While writing is a necessary tool in any academic environment, the current approach does not seem to make a huge difference in students’ ability to write. One of the major flaws with this philosophy is that it does not take into account the problem with writing in classes where the skill is not inherently needed. For instance, in a math class, would repeatedly writing out explanations to concepts really improve writing ability to the degree that it is worth taking away time from the curriculum? As the current situation stands, many teachers struggle to teach the entirety of the already existing material without having to worry about supplementing it with writing. To expect this of teachers who are not necessarily trained or equipped to teach writing would be asking a great deal from them.

If writing were to become a major focus in these fact-based subjects, there would need to be more than a just few writing assignments to make Writing Across the Curriculum effective. Right now, math and science teachers conform to a system of tests and numbers, a system that is hard to stray from. Especially in a school as large as Stuyvesant, it would be extremely difficult to give each student the individual attention he or she needs to truly make a difference in writing ability in math and science classes.

It is important to develop verbal ability among students, especially in a math and science school where writing isn’t necessarily the focus, but to try and take time from classes in which writing would not be conducive to learning the material—and may not necessarily improve the writing ability of the student—is not the best way to accomplish this. While it would benefit students to emphasize building writing ability, it would make more sense to continue the focus on writing in humanities courses, as opposed to compromising the learning experience of the student body in other classes. Until a more concrete plan that all teachers can work with is created, this policy will continue to be “Writing Across the Ridiculum.”

Web Overload

erica — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:39:51 +0000

Face it: 3:30 p.m. does not signal the end of our school day. Between studying and participating in extracurricular activities, the time we dedicate to school almost always exceeds the seven hours a day that we spend in the building. Upon returning home and turning on our computers, each and every one of us immediately reconnects with Stuyvesant, this time in its on-line manifestation. As children of the Internet, we have grown up using Google as a verb and have become over-reliant on Wikipedia for school research projects. The Internet has long been ingrained into our souls.

In addition to procrastinating on Facebook and YouTube, Stuyvesant students swarm the Internet, making use of the large number of school-related Web sites available. However, our navigating abilities are hindered by a lack of connection between the sites. In order to make surfing the web more convenient for students, the Stuyvesant on-line community needs to become more unified.

Many of us spend time on the most popular of these sites: the official Stuyvesant Web site, www.stuy.edu. We visit it to find out the week’s bell and gym schedules, hear the latest from Assistant Principal Technology Edward Wong and, of course, analyze our transcript for the 100th time and obsess over various college acceptance statistics.

Aside from the official Stuyvesant website, there is a vast array of sites dedicated to the student body. From www.stuysu.org to www.stuyspectator.com and www.stuycom.net, there is seemingly a website for every need or desire a Stuyvesant student might potentially have.

Got a club? The Student Union (SU) Web site, www.stuysu.org, is essential if you need to get in contact with the club/pub director to book a room for a meeting. For anyone who has missed out on all the latest news, www.stuyspectator.com is The Spectator on the Web, providing school-related information to those who neglect to pick up the printed copy. And for any Stuyvesant student who has ever felt the urge to complain about a school-related problem, needed help studying for a final, or just wanted to check up on the previous years’ crush lists, he or she should bookmark www.stuycom.net. From the official Web site to student-run sites for various clubs and individual grades, there is a vast number of school community Web sites available to us.

And that’s the problem; a refinement of the on-line Stuyvesant community is in order. Currently, getting sufficient Stuyvesant-related information on the internet is like a modern-day wild goose chase. But with the help of the school’s Technology department and a few clicks of the mouse, gathering information as members of the Stuyvesant community could be faster than fiber optic.

Navigating the numerous Web sites to stay updated on all school-related information is extremely confusing. The www.stuy.edu site could be greatly improved by adding a sidebar with links to all the Web sites Stuyvesant students use, creating a database for easy access. In addition, the SU’s club/pub directory, though currently updated with an accurate list, should be advertised more efficiently; the link from the www.stuy.edu homepage takes a user to the SU Web site, but not directly to the club/pub list.

While the links would be convenient, it’s unlikely that the administration would want to connect to sites such as www.stuycom.net. Various features (such as an occasional ‘hot or not’ poll, Stuyvesant edition), while sometimes amusing, could be considered offensive and unprofessional. And while overlooking these slight detriments might be beneficial in the long run, it is understandable that the administration would not want to endorse that kind of humor. Perhaps www.stuycom.net should consider making some less risqué choices if they wish to be promoted by the official website.

In recent years, our society has been making the transitions to the Internet as a more efficient and quick method of communication. Easing that transition by making minor adjustments to the official school Web site would result in both a happier student body, as well as a more organized and well run Stuyvesant community.