On January 22nd, all students and faculty will take a break from normal school activities and participate in OSA Intersession. --Grace Triantafyllos
On January 22nd, all students and faculty will take a break from normal school activities and participate in OSA Intersession. All of the activities taking place are planned and hosted by teachers.
“‘[OSA Intersession ] is a day in which every single student in this building has an opportunity to participate in an activity or project across all different grade levels to experience learning outside the classroom,” said OSA’s Dean, Katy Zaugg.
“[The teachers are] bringing something that maybe they’re passionate about themselves, or they have an interesting contact somewhere, or just something that they’re interested in having students do,” said 6th grade English and Social Studies teacher and OSA Intersession co-planner Kris Bradburn. “So, there’s a bunch of really exciting ideas that teachers have that you’ll be getting a catalog [of].”
Students will be able to sign up for activities starting Friday, January 21st. Most activities will take place on campus, while some are field trips.
“The whole purpose is just for students to learn more about their community, or overlooked history, landmarks and culture. You also get to spend the day with students you don’t know and teachers you don’t have,” said Zaugg.
“I would say the main purpose is to build community,” Bradburn said. “And also for kids to have a break from the normal day-to-day school. Kind of reinvigorate us as we head into the second semester. But also [to] have a chance to see things you wouldn’t normally do… It’s just different things to kind of inspire kids and inspire teachers to do something else.”
7th and 8th grade math teacher Kelsey Holtzinger, who is in charge of one of the events, said, “I think there’s two really big purposes. I think it's to get students out of their comfort zone and try something new, and I think the second purpose is to mix and mingle the students so that way maybe they can meet somebody that they haven’t had a chance to meet before.”
As for the activities themselves, there’s a vast array for students to choose from. Some include fabric dyeing, an escape room, rock climbing, cooking, yoga, a visit to UC Berkley, a boxing class, and a flash mob in San Francisco.
“We’ve also got a hip hop--Hip Hop for Change, which is a non-profit organization that does grassroots activism to educate people about socioeconomic injustice and advocates solutions through hip hop culture,” said Bradburn. “They’ve got people that are going to come in and teach people how to do hip hop dancing, and there’ll be a performance at the end of the day, which will be super cool.”
“Ms. Hurley and Mr. Savage are going to be watching videos of classic dance. Like, for example, the scenes from ‘All That Jazz’ or Micheal Jackson. So they’re going to watch it, they’re going to analyze it for the kind of dance moves that are in there, and then they’re going to practice the combinations and actually do those classic dances,” said Bradburn.
Becky Potter, a theatre teacher, will be putting on a musical in one day. Radio teacher, Delores Thompson will be taking students on a tour of Bonneville International, the office of several radio stations. Holtzinger, who is hosting her own Intersession event, will be, “taking anywhere between ten to 15 kids and we’re actually doing an eight-mile hike. It's going to be intense and it’s going to be long and it’s going to be quite a workout,” she said.
The experience of planning OSA Intersession has been just as varied as the events themselves. “It’s been a lot more difficult than I thought,” said Holtzinger. “There's a lot of restrictions on where we can go and what we can afford to do. So, instead of being able to maybe do an eight mile hike in San Francisco or near Marin Headlands or near Sausalito, I find myself trying to look for a trailhead that’s closer to Berkeley, which outrules mountains in Walnut Creek like Diablo, or any place that means we can’t get there [using] public transportation or sharing a bus, it means we can’t go. It’s really hard to find an eight-mile hike that’s in our city,”
Bradburn also found planning difficult. “I think it’s a number of things. One, we kind of got a late start for a number of reasons, and that happens. So, we’re tight on time. And because it’s something new, there’s a lot more time put into helping people understand what it is. For example, you don’t know what it is, the students don’t know what it is, so we have to do all that kind of-- we call it front loading. But the teachers themselves are like, ‘What is this thing we’re doing?’ and many of them have jumped right in and others are still not quite sure, but I think after we do this first year there’ll be that intitial, ‘Oh, I know what this is.’ And then people will be able to think about it a little more in advance. And I think that’s been part of the problem. It’s people haven’t really known what it is. But I would say most everyone’s starting to get on board, and I think once the students see what’s available they’ll get excited,” she said.
“It is the first time we’re doing interession. It’s an idea that our Executive Director, Mr. Kohn, brought to the school, but it’s been done at other schools. In fact, some of our teachers here have done them before,” Braburn said.
When asked what inspired OSA Intersession, Zaugg responded, “We want to put the sense of community in place with this whole six-to-12 school model, so this is a way for students to do something outside of their emphasis and just experience learning outside of their classrooms.”
“‘[OSA Intersession ] is a day in which every single student in this building has an opportunity to participate in an activity or project across all different grade levels to experience learning outside the classroom,” said OSA’s Dean, Katy Zaugg.
“[The teachers are] bringing something that maybe they’re passionate about themselves, or they have an interesting contact somewhere, or just something that they’re interested in having students do,” said 6th grade English and Social Studies teacher and OSA Intersession co-planner Kris Bradburn. “So, there’s a bunch of really exciting ideas that teachers have that you’ll be getting a catalog [of].”
Students will be able to sign up for activities starting Friday, January 21st. Most activities will take place on campus, while some are field trips.
“The whole purpose is just for students to learn more about their community, or overlooked history, landmarks and culture. You also get to spend the day with students you don’t know and teachers you don’t have,” said Zaugg.
“I would say the main purpose is to build community,” Bradburn said. “And also for kids to have a break from the normal day-to-day school. Kind of reinvigorate us as we head into the second semester. But also [to] have a chance to see things you wouldn’t normally do… It’s just different things to kind of inspire kids and inspire teachers to do something else.”
7th and 8th grade math teacher Kelsey Holtzinger, who is in charge of one of the events, said, “I think there’s two really big purposes. I think it's to get students out of their comfort zone and try something new, and I think the second purpose is to mix and mingle the students so that way maybe they can meet somebody that they haven’t had a chance to meet before.”
As for the activities themselves, there’s a vast array for students to choose from. Some include fabric dyeing, an escape room, rock climbing, cooking, yoga, a visit to UC Berkley, a boxing class, and a flash mob in San Francisco.
“We’ve also got a hip hop--Hip Hop for Change, which is a non-profit organization that does grassroots activism to educate people about socioeconomic injustice and advocates solutions through hip hop culture,” said Bradburn. “They’ve got people that are going to come in and teach people how to do hip hop dancing, and there’ll be a performance at the end of the day, which will be super cool.”
“Ms. Hurley and Mr. Savage are going to be watching videos of classic dance. Like, for example, the scenes from ‘All That Jazz’ or Micheal Jackson. So they’re going to watch it, they’re going to analyze it for the kind of dance moves that are in there, and then they’re going to practice the combinations and actually do those classic dances,” said Bradburn.
Becky Potter, a theatre teacher, will be putting on a musical in one day. Radio teacher, Delores Thompson will be taking students on a tour of Bonneville International, the office of several radio stations. Holtzinger, who is hosting her own Intersession event, will be, “taking anywhere between ten to 15 kids and we’re actually doing an eight-mile hike. It's going to be intense and it’s going to be long and it’s going to be quite a workout,” she said.
The experience of planning OSA Intersession has been just as varied as the events themselves. “It’s been a lot more difficult than I thought,” said Holtzinger. “There's a lot of restrictions on where we can go and what we can afford to do. So, instead of being able to maybe do an eight mile hike in San Francisco or near Marin Headlands or near Sausalito, I find myself trying to look for a trailhead that’s closer to Berkeley, which outrules mountains in Walnut Creek like Diablo, or any place that means we can’t get there [using] public transportation or sharing a bus, it means we can’t go. It’s really hard to find an eight-mile hike that’s in our city,”
Bradburn also found planning difficult. “I think it’s a number of things. One, we kind of got a late start for a number of reasons, and that happens. So, we’re tight on time. And because it’s something new, there’s a lot more time put into helping people understand what it is. For example, you don’t know what it is, the students don’t know what it is, so we have to do all that kind of-- we call it front loading. But the teachers themselves are like, ‘What is this thing we’re doing?’ and many of them have jumped right in and others are still not quite sure, but I think after we do this first year there’ll be that intitial, ‘Oh, I know what this is.’ And then people will be able to think about it a little more in advance. And I think that’s been part of the problem. It’s people haven’t really known what it is. But I would say most everyone’s starting to get on board, and I think once the students see what’s available they’ll get excited,” she said.
“It is the first time we’re doing interession. It’s an idea that our Executive Director, Mr. Kohn, brought to the school, but it’s been done at other schools. In fact, some of our teachers here have done them before,” Braburn said.
When asked what inspired OSA Intersession, Zaugg responded, “We want to put the sense of community in place with this whole six-to-12 school model, so this is a way for students to do something outside of their emphasis and just experience learning outside of their classrooms.”
