Posts Tagged ‘Academics’
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
Photo by Taylor Cote
Over a beautiful Thanksgiving meal high up in the Andes in a remote lodge on the banks of the Achibueno, the New River Academy enjoyed an inspired poetry reading. Zoe Ross read aloud the poem which was a collaborative effort of the American Literature Class. Zoe, Clay Whitiker, Alex Anderson and Eric Bartl had slaved away on this poem for four consecutive days while we were in Pichilemu, sitting on the beach and using the surf and sand as inspiration. They used their vocab words in the poem; and you could see the jaws drop as they rhymed Convivial with Unbelievable and Unspeakable, Eremitic with Roll the Credits, and many more….Taylor Cote, my ultra-creative creative writing student, read her own poem, the product of many hours of class and free time. Hers utilized an intricate rhyme scheme that pulled us right into her words, and she mentioned every single one of us in her epic. There was a collective murmur of delight when she rhymed “the scenery is breathtaking, even though we be test taking…” Double syllabic feminine rhymes rock!!
Matt Hill read two poems he wrote, both old fashion ballads utilizing an abab rhyme scheme. He is a buddy Robert Frost, which makes me, his Vermonter English Teacher, extremely proud.
Tracy d’Arbeloff and David Hughes read aloud from Pablo Neruda in both English and Spanish, and Tino Specht gave us an unusual treat by reading an EE Cummings poem in both languages as well. EE Cummings takes his poetic licence off-roading, so to speak, and he is a challenge to read aloud in English. So cheer to Tino for the beautiful reading in Spanish! Eric Bartl read aloud from Robert Frost’s The Road Less Taken, The official New River Academy Poem. And I read two poems, one I wrote in creative writing which I’ll post here, and one that I wrote nine years ago, when I attended a traveling adventure high school.
It was a lively, peaceful and rare gem of an evening. There was candle light, fire light, steam on the thick glass windows and outside a sky blazing with stars and a white moon. Inside we listened to one another, applauded each other, and each gave a small speech of personal thanks to each other, our families, the school, the country of Chile, and the people at home who helped us get here.
Thank you! We are so grateful!
–Melina
Tags: Academic Report, Academics, Gap Year, gap year abroad, kayak high school, melina coogan, new river academy
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Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Here is the latest info on the Upper Maipo River run down here in Chile. The Upper Maipo section is definately big water.
From the start at the end of the Rio Yeso the Maipo is a full on river run. There are many large pour-overs as well as tons of huge waves. There is little to no flat water between the rapids with many little waves to play on as well as holes. The biggest main rapid is called French Curve. French Curve consists of a very large pour-over as well as two undercut rocks on river right. The whole rapid curves left hence the name french curve. At the pour over most of the water pushes right into the undercut rocks making the rapid very dangerous. Portage is strongly recommended. The run should not be taken lightly after french curve. The water is still huge and there are also many huge pour-overs and waves that are able to flip a boat at any moment.
Definite class 4-5
Don’t let the description scare you though, it is 100% fun.
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See you on the water!
Tags: Academics, Chile, Freestyle Kayaking, Gap Year, gap year abroad, Geography, go huge, Go Huge Experiences, high school, kayak, Kayak Gap Year Abroad, Kayak School, Kayaking, matt hill, new river academy, whitewater, whitewater kayak, whitewater kayaking
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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
Yesterday was going to be one of our first Chilean waterfalls. We were however disappointed to see a cliff with a little trickle down the face. No waterfall! (Insert sad face here). Pengal did however show us a prison camp from the era of Pinochet. Ghost mixed with goats and sadness could be felt all around. Aside from being a trip to our first Chilean waterfall it was a time for our geography class to test out some mapping. Here below is a log of our adventures.
see you on the water!
Tags: Academics, Chile, gap year abroad, gay year, Geography, GIS, go huge kayaking, Gps, high school, kayak, Kayaking, maipo, map, mapping, matt hill, matt smink, new river academy, Photography, pinochet, waterfall
Posted in Academics, Culture, Intructional, Kayak Gap Year Abroad, Kayak School, Kayaking, Photography, Uncategorized, Whitewater Countries | Comments Off
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
New River Academy Students getting up close to the Niagra Helicopters
We made it to West Virginia, safe and sound. We are putting our nose to the textbooks and churning out the classes so that we can take advantage of every moment that the Gauley river is coursing with water.
We drove from the Ottawa river to Fayetteville in two days, taking a fantastic whirl-wind layover in Niagra Falls. The students hit the town at night, enjoying the buffets and restaurants and taking a whirl in the Sky Wheel, a Ferris wheel with a grand view of the falls in all their lit up, misting splendor. If you’ve never visited the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, it is like a little piece of family friendly Vegas- lights, museums, rides, popcorn, ice cream stands, a 80 foot plastic Hulk towering above Burger king holding an enormous hamburger in an enormous hand. I am absolutely coming up short in my description, but keep an eye on the blogs as some of the students caught the gaudy brilliance on film.
The next day, the parents of a prospective NRA student gave us free tickets to as many sights as we could pack into our morning. Together, we hung out with the celebrities and politicians at the CREEPY museum of wax, ogled over the oddities at Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum and went on a spooky mine shaft ride and a magic carpet ride in Ripley’s moving theater. As the screen gave us a head-camera view of a twisty, turning, free-falling journey through the haunted mine or swooped us around on our carpets, our seats shook and threw us around. For the 13 of us who live primarily on the quiet banks of a river, this trip was pure thrill, pure entertainment and purely….free of charge!
The parents of the prospective student are the owners of a helicopter flying business, and in an incredible show of generosity and enthusiasm, they offered to take us all on a copter ride over the falls! Having never been on a helicopter, I was so excited I could barely sleep. Sadly, it turns out the atmosphere was not working in our favor, and the ‘ceiling’ of clouds were too low to fly. After such an exciting morning of 12-legged cows and wax Jennifer Anistons, however, none of us were despondent. It had already been a memorable day, unlike any other.
The rest of the drive went smoothly and the students enjoyed one last all you can buffet (Chinese) before arriving safely at our base in Fayetteville, on the lip of the New River Gorge. We spent the day doing laundry, recovering from the long drive and having class. On Friday we hit the Gauley- an old favorite for some, a brand new river for others.
We hope you’re well. Thank you for all your responses and comments on the blog, it is so rewarding for all of us!
Tags: Academics, niagra falls, weekly report
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Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Yesterday, for our photo class Melina suprised us by taking us on a nice fall stroll. We stopped at this little glorious place on the side of the road that had so many places to capture action. We had a picture taking spree because of all the perfect picture oppurtunites. I had fun being the model for some but I also enjoyed being the director too. It was so cool setting them up where I wanted them to be in my shots. For my photos, I had people hiding in the field of cattails playing hide and seek almost. I also had them playing around a do not trespass sign because we all like living on edge. We are kayakers after all. Well I hope you enjoy perusing my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them the other day.
Tags: Academics, Canada, cattails, eric bartl, fall stroll, Gap Year, gap year abroad, go huge, Go Huge Experiences, Kayak School, Kayaking, matt hill, melina coogan, new river academy, ottawa canada, Photography, taylor cote, whitewater
Posted in Academics, Kayak School, Photography, Uncategorized, Whitewater Countries | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Creative writing is one my most enjoyable classes. I’m the only student in that class and it’s so cool. For my first assignment, I needed to choose a photograph and let all my ideas flow freely. Usually in writing you have no idea where to begin. The photo helped narrow my ideas because I only had to write about the things going on in it. So you write without punctuation and just let your mind go and write down everything that comes to mind. That is why the punctuation in this is non-existent. I wrote this as if I was the person in the photograph.
bubbly excitement to get the shot to impress them all my chance to shine show what i can do what i can capture and portray so simply it gives me my own way to express my emotion how i feel from comedic to a complete and utter seriousness it can be whatever i choose how in control i feel like i am the mastermind behind it all this ingenious plan in which i am the king controlling all these silly pawns to their place in it all however sometimes the candid remarks or movements i catch them doing can become the most perfect unplanned addition isn’t it all about those little things anyways watching this unfold before my eyes is quite the joy the satisfaction of the accomplishment that almost everyone has felt before does that mean my work is in vain it is not showing my individuality my specialness my gift to the world no it does it does only for the fact that my heart my soul every little piece of me goes into the final product i put out what a comtemplation what silly ideas have you thought up now you crazy mind oh the things i see that no one else ever will even in their wildest dreams where it has taken me where it will now where it will then it seems so long ago i was the one tiptoeing around in the sand avoiding the lapping tide then as my knowledge grew there i was swimming with the brightly colored fish and anemones and now finally i have boarded my own sailboat i am in control of it all except where the winds will take me i can fly across the sea with the sails taught and tidy i know my course i already know what the wind has planned for me now
Tags: Academics, alex anderson, anderson media productions, creative writing, garbarator, go huge, Go Huge Experiences, Kayak School, Kayaking, new river academy, Ottawa river, Photography, taylor cote, whitewater
Posted in Academics, Culture, Kayak Gap Year Abroad, Kayak School, Kayaking, Photography, Uncategorized, Whitewater Countries | Comments Off
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
Isaac Holden leaves his mark somewhere in New Zealand (c) David Gorski
Emery Kate Tillman and Palmer Miller exploring and old car in Chile with the Pucon Volcano in the background (look closely). (c) David Gorski
David Nelson Jones (NRA senior) doing a HUGE pan-am on the New River Dries here in WV. (c) Zach Kathrien
West Virginia is in full bloom for graduation. “When we first got here we were kayaking in a wastland” said Zach Kathrien (NRA junior) refering to the lack of plantlife in early spring. The New River is running at good flows and most of our parents are getting ready to go rafting down the New River Gorge, (The Grand Canyon of the East). It’s hard to believe that this is the end of our New River Academy life. Many of us seniors are going off to college where it’s going to take some work to get are daily dose of kayaking that we’ve all become addicted to. Life doesn’t get much better when your traveling all over the world and kayaking every day, but we’ll manage.
Fourth quarter in North America has probably been our best quarter of the year as far as whitewater goes. At the beginning, we got some epic creekboating in places like the Tallula river in Georgia and the Green river in NC. We’ve also found some great waves such as Brave Wave in Tennessee, High Tension Wave and Bus Eater Wave in Canada, and the New River Dries and Surprise Wave in West Virginia. “I think this is one of the best quarters the school has ever had as far as big waves go” said David Hughes (NRA founder and director).
Lots of New River Academy alumni have been dropping in for graduation lately. It’s exiting to see all the great people and great kayakers that have come out of this school in the past. Well, I hate to stop writing with so few words on my last blog, but I have a speech tomorrow at graduation that I’ve got to get practiced up for so wish me luck!
Bon Vo-yage,
David Gorski
Tags: Academics, david gorski, Kayaking, new river academy
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Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Welcome! Behold the latest academic report for New River Academy. This one written by our very own Jason Aytes, teacher of all things historical, governmental and the like. Enjoy!
In both AP Government and AP History, Palmer Miller and Nelson Jones have been spending class time preparing for their exams. Their preparations have included studying chapter material, flash cards and taking practice test. Both Palmer and Nelson have been putting ample time into studying for these college credit exams and are looking forward to putting the test behind them. These exams will be administered this week.
In Human Geography class at the beginning of the quarter I asked the students, “What are you most interested in studying in this class?” The response was, “The Middle East.” We have spent the first part of the quarter working on the history, culture and customs of Middle Eastern society. As a group we learned the geographical locations of Middle Eastern countries and capitals of these countries. Also, as a group we studied the chapter in our textbook on the Middle East. This included general information on this part of the world. We took a day to discuss modern day policy of the Gaza Strip and West Band area. The main focus on this unit involved each student preparing and teaching a lesson on different aspects of the Middle East. The students took this assignment very seriously and did a wonderful job with their presentation to the class. Stephen Forster chose modern day politics and economics in the Middle East. Zach Kathrein compared the religions of Islam and Judism. Emery Tillman tackled the task of reporting on modern culture. Jackson Conn taught us the differences between Shi’its and Shunnies. Alexandra Shallhorn prepared a report on the history of Islam. Tracy d’Arbeloff’s presentation included Middle Eastern human right’s issues. The students showed a great deal of interest in their particular areas and we also enjoyed listening to the presentations. Now in Human Geography class we are doing a unit on genocide. Each student picked their choice of a modern genocide and is presenting their research to the rest of the class. Presentations are due at the end of this week. This has been a sad but educational unit.
In U.S. History we have been doing a variety of activities. The quarter started out with the students researching and presenting history on where they grew up. Issac Holden presented Chattanooga, TN. Keegan Grady’s presentation was on Lapasse, ON. Eli Spiegal showed us the history of the Seattle, WA area. Along with these reports we added in a section featuring some of the area’s water basins and whitewater. This was especially easy for Keegan as he grew up in Whitewater County. Now we are also studying genocides in the U.S History class. This class showed interest in the subject after the Human Geography class started the same unit. We are studying genocides and the involvement or lack of involvement the U.S. had during these events. We are finishing up this unit by taking a non-bias look at Henry Kissinger who has been a controversial figure in American History.
Tags: Academic Report, Academics, AP classes, AP curiculum, AP education, high school government classes, high school history classes, Jason Aytes
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Friday, May 1st, 2009
Hi all! Below is an academic report from Julia Fisher, New River Academy’s spanish teacher. I asked her to provide the report for this week because I’ve noticed a lot of laughter coming from her classes lately. Enjoy! –Melina
Academic Report::Spanish
Keenerville on the Ottawa is one of the best places we have had for classes. There are plenty of rooms, tables, and chairs so that each class has space to make its own unique classroom. We also have Internet, so students and teachers are able to research freely.
I am glad to write the academic report this week because I have been having some of the best Spanish classes of the quarter here in Canada. My Spanish II Class has finished the textbook, so we are free to have creative and fun lessons reviewing what they have learned throughout the quarter. My favorite class was earlier this week when the students and I translated a song that they often sing, “Heat of the Moment” by Asia. We translated the first half of the song and the chorus, and in the last few moments, sang it to a student who was feeling under the weather. He perked right up and the students and I were laughing and smiling for the remainder of the day.
In Spanish III, we have worked on simple translation, reading comprehension, and pronunciation. We are now polishing up some grammatical concepts in preparation for the final exam. I know that the students’ favorite class was when we played Spanish Scrabble. I believe that they were having so much fun that they forgot that they were still learning. It was a good way to reward them for working hard.
Advanced Spanish V has been awesome because we are studying Latin American Authors, which is what my background is in. We are studying works by award-winning authors such as Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, and Jorge Luis Borges. These authors are some of the main contributors to the literary Boom in Latin American in the mid-twentieth century. My students have done a wonderful job comprehending and analyzing these complex, layered short stories and poems. They will surely have the upper hand when they continue their Spanish studies at the college level.
Hard work is paying off and things are moving right along. Congratulations to all my Spanish students, I feel that they have learned so much by having such small classes in which I can cater the curriculum to meet their individual needs.
–Julia Fisher
Tags: Academic Report, Academics, Julia Fisher, spanish
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Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Our World Literature class is having a great time reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Last American Man. It’s the story of Eustace Conway, self proclaimed “Man of Destiny” who creates a life for himself in the woods and makes it his life goal to convert all of society into his minimal, survivalist way of life. It’s a perfect book for us, because running around in the woods during class becomes in exercise in relating to literature. It’s been sunny and warm here on the banks of the overflowing Ottawa river, and we’re enjoying having class outside on the grass. Today, my class was Eli Spiegal, David Gorski and Jackson Conn. (Tracy d’Arbeloff had taken a much deserved day off to paddle Chambolix wave.) The boys and I talked for a while about one remarkable story about Conway involving a girlfriend and squirrel soup. “This is a pop quiz,” I told them. “If you convince a beautiful, smart, bold young woman to be your girlfriend and live with you in your debris-hut, and she keeps the debris-hut clean while you’re out on business all the time, and then one day she makes you a delicious squirrel soup, do you: A) Thank her for the delicious soup and give her a flower or B) Pull her outside in the rain and make her dig up the squirrel bones she burried after making broth, to prove to her the value of eating all of the marrow inside the bone, the way Conway did?”
Thankfully, the boys, although admitting the importance of efficiency and using all parts of an animal, eventually decided on answer A. They all passed.
For the remainder of the class, we will be further discussing The Last American Man, having survival expert Tino Specht as a geust speaker, and watching Into the Wild. Comparing and contrasting Into the Wild protagonist Alexander Supertramp with Eustace Conway and Three Cups of Tea Protagonist Greg Mortenson is sure to yield some great final essays.
Tags: Academics, education, Ottawa, study abroad programs
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