REDS Blog

Wow! How crazy is it to think that we have completed 3 months of school? As we approach this landmark, I wanted to share what a typical academic day in life looks like for me! At RPCS we operate on an odd/even day schedule, so you alternate classes every day, because of this I’m going to write about 2 different days, so you can hear about all my classes!

 

Day #1 (Odd Day)

8:00-9:20 English 11 @ Gilman! Yes! I get to start my odd days with a coordinated class! At RPCS starting your junior year you have the opportunity to take English or history at Gilman in a coordinated class environment! I love this opportunity, because not only does it allow you to explore another campus, but you also get to have different students in your classes, & experience another approach to teaching/learning. Right now in English, we are reading The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and today we discussed how themes in the book tie into real-world scenarios, an example of this was discussing Beauty Standards in the book and how they are prevalent in society.

9:20-9:40 Passing Period #1! One thing I love about RPCS is the long passing periods in between classes, for it is super useful on odd days to get back to RPCS from Gilman, without having to rush or worry about making it to my next class. Once I got back on campus, I stopped at the RPCS school store, The Den, to grab a snack with my friends!

9:40-11:00 Arabic 3 @ RPCS! (but coordinated with Gilman & Bryn Mawr students): Arabic is one of my favorite classes here at RPCS, not only do I have an amazing teacher, but I have also been with the same classmates for three years now, so we have developed a strong class bond and connection! In the previous class, we learned about social life vocabulary & today we applied it in small group presentations about holidays in the Arab world! Not only do I get to learn about the language itself, but also learn about its culture.

11:00-11:20 Passing Period #2! During this passing period, I went to meet with my APUSH teacher to go over test corrections from our last unit test! Teachers at RPCS are super accessible & encourage you to go and meet with them!

11:20-12:40 H Chemistry @ RPCS! My final class of the day! My teacher brings such good energy and enthusiasm to our class, that truly gets me through the class! Today we had a lab, the Cereal Lab, which focused on the physical vs chemical properties of cereal.

After Chemistry I am done with academic classes for the day, I then have lunch, community time, meetings with teachers, time to do homework, or however else I want to fill my time until I have cross-country practice at 4:00.

 

Day #2 (Even Day)

8:00-9:20 AP Chinese @ RPCS (but coordinated with BMS students)! AP Chinese is such a challenging, but also entertaining class! Today we learned about Tea Rooms in China, we started by learning about the history of tea rooms, useful vocab words, and the cultural significance of team rooms. We then got to interact with each other & practice speaking scenarios, surrounding tea parties.

9:20-9:40 Passing Period #1: I stayed later in my Chinese class to work on the homework with one of my classmates from Bryn Mawr (a true example of a way that I have benefited from coordinate classes = becoming friends with people from BMS & Gilman)

9:40-11:00 A Pre-Calc AB @ RPCS: RPCS uses the Harkness learning curriculum, developed at Phillips Exeter Academy, to approach math! This means that we do 8-12 problems each night for homework, come back the next day as a class & present the problems. Together, we then “struggle” through the problems and help identify key concepts and techniques used to solve each problem.

11:00-12:40 Passing Period #2: I utilized this time to start my homework & chat with some of my friends in the Junior Link. Each grade has its own common space on campus (the junior class has the link), the common spaces help to build community & develop connections throughout the grades. 

10:20-12:40 AP United States History @ RPCS! Today in APUSH we started class with a discussion surrounding last night’s reading on the 7 years war, this was a super interactive lesson & I felt that it helped me to better retain the information! We then began our small group research projects on the events that led up to the Revolution, my group is focusing on the Tea Act of 1773.

2:45-3:30 RED Block Independent Study: After a few hours to recharge, I have my final class of the day, Independent Study, for my independent study I am an assistant first grade Chinese Teacher! I teach every other day & on days when I don’t teach, I work on lesson plans & activities! Today in First Grade, we wrapped up the animal unit, by making fun of animal face masks! 

 

I hope that you enjoyed learning more about my academic life & schedule at RPCS! One of my favorite things about RPCS is how flexible the schedule is & how you can truly center it around what you are most interested in! As always, please feel free to email me if you have any questions (greenleer@rpcs.org)