IS Blog Post #6

Monday, April 23rd

Hello again! I hope you guys are doing well. I have had a great week and a lot of stuff has happened! At the beginning of the week, we had midterms, but not the kind of midterms you might think of. While I was expecting midterms to be exams for each of my classes, like we do at East, things are a bit different down here. Instead of having assessments, we had individual meetings for each class with our teachers to talk about what we like and dislike about the class, what our strengths and weaknesses are, and what our goals are for the rest of the semester. We were then given feedback from each teacher about what they believe we should work on, what personal strengths they’ve noticed, etc.

In addition to having midterms meetings, we also had a thing called DOLs. A DOL, or a Demonstration of Learning, is 5-10 minute speech that each of us had to give in front of two advisories (including our own) that basically shows what we have learned in the first half of the semester (by talking about educational experiences in classes, morning exercise, Settlement Days, etc.) and how we are going to apply that knowledge for the last 50 days. While they were slightly nerve-racking to present as they requires immense vulnerability, they were really interesting to listen to and were definitely a good educational experience.

Aside from midterms, we finished our last academic week, which is pretty exciting. While we’ll still have classes intermittently throughout the semester and on our Down Island Trip (DIT), we are now moving into expeditions and afterwards, Parent’s Weekend and Final Projects. ATtthe moment, we are preparing for our 9-day kayak/sailing expeditions and DIT, which will be happening starting Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I’ll be leaving for my DIT and afterwards, my 9-day kayak expedition, which will include a 48-hour solo. Because of expeditions, you will not be hearing from me for the next two to three weeks, but I can’t wait to tell you all about my adventures when I get back.

Wish me luck!

Nora