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Friday , January 25th, 2013

TEDx at AAS - Xenia Rakovshik

TEDx AAS - December 2012

Sports © AAS Yearbook Photogtraphty

Members of the TEDx team © AAS Yearbook photography

Semester I Exams

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Special thanks to supervisor Francy Johnson

ecember 14th, 2012 - Preempting the onset of the winter break at the end of last year’s academic session, the Anglo American School of Moscow joined the worldwide phenomenon know as TED Talks, hosting its own TEDx talk in the Bolshoi Theatre located under the high-school office. According to their official webpage (www.ted. com/pages/about) “TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.” Starting in 1984 as conference bringing together individuals from occupations concerned with Technology, Entertainment and Design, the now worldwide phenomena has broadened its thematic scope to encompass a myriad of social and intellectually

stimulating concerns facing people today. “Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program is designed to give communities, organization and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, facilitated by the dedicated work of those involved, on a community-by-community basis. In addition to several videos from experts and intellectuals ranging from author John Green’s “The Paper Town Academy” to Jeff Hancock’s “The Future of Lying”, the conference featured some of the school’s faculty members including His-

tory, Economics and Social Studies teacher Paul Pickering with “Capitalist Realism Ate Hip Hop!” Chemistry teacher Kees Kuijlaars and his talk on “Internet Resource in Science Education: Hopes and Fears” , School Director Jon P. Zurfluh with “What Are we Missing?” and Mathematics teacher Joseph Khan on “Mindset for the New Tech Era”. The conference always welcomed guest speakers “Maxim Titov on “Energy Efficiency – Myths and Realities” and REV. Matthew A. Laferty on “Transcending Borders with the Transcendent.” High-school student speakers included seniors Seifu Al-Midahi with “The Napoleon Moment in Academics”, Sai Agnihotram with his “A Self-Centered

Place” and sophomore Hannah Durkin “When Not Knowing Is Good”. “As soon as I heard that AAS was hosting a TEDx event, I knew that I had to talk about the degrading relationship between Schools and Universities” relates Seifu Al-Midahi, “because it was something that was in my mind this whole year as I went through the University application process as a senior.” On her presentation on the drawbacks of censorship Hannah Durkin commented, “I had experienced censorship living in Russia and China, I also thought that it connected to the main idea of the conferContinued on page 02...

A Student’s Perspective on TEDx - Lola Borissenko

Seifu Al-Midahi (Senior and Director of Communications for the Student Council) © AAS Yearbook photography

Sai Agnitoram (Senior) © AAS Yearbook photography

Joseph Khan ©AAS Yearbook Photography Hannah Durkin (Sophomore) © AAS Yearbook photography

P Paul Pickering © AAS Yearbook photography

Kees Kuijlaars

ence and that I could do a speech that would leave people thinking about what I had said.” However in providing these select students with an opportunity to share their ideas with a larger audience the thrill of sharing ideas was somewhat undercut with a sense of foreboding. All student TEDx speakers available for comment referred to the trouble they had cutting down the amount they wanted to say into

a simple 15 to 20 minutes. “I rehearsed the presentation roughly ten times total to make sure that it was under, but the time always fluctuated between 17:00 minutes to 18:30 minutes in my rehearsals,” confessed Seifu Al-Midahi, “At the end however, my presentation was thankfully shorter than the 18:00 minutes limit time. The overall experience was fantastic. Several colleagues came up to me after my presentation and declared their love for my presentation and said that it was by far

the most well-delivered channel (http://www. speech they’ve seen youtube.com/playlist?l from me. ist=PLSatVjzQd2dTO IHe4lo0XKAufyQ-JdHowever, Hannah re- lG). calls that the true value of the conference was Special thanks to TEDx msot visible in the af- AAS cordinators Santermath of the presen- dra lifshits and Ramona tations, “..when people Popescu, Speaker Cocame up to me and ordinators Sai Agnitalked about how they hotram, Boris Botachev had disagreed or agreed and Sonya Kirillova with what I said. I was as well as Public Relareally proud that people tions and Media staff had felt strongly enough Ramona Popescu and about what I had said Kirill Mazurin. Schedto want to talk to me uling coordination was about.” done by Mina Song and Sun woo Lee with teAll TEDx AAS vid- chonological coordinaeos are available on tors Camilla Simmons the TED website or on and Timur Karimov. youtube through TED’s Venue organization was

done by Moa Schaffer and Sandra Lifshits, with Nika Stump as Streaming/Coordinator. A special thank you also goes to the onstage host Jakob Muratov and the PenguinLIVE filming team: Johanna Merirand, Kevin Huh, Anna Lamond, Jonathan Spjut, Jane Byon, Maz Emmenegger, Kaan Cankat, Kate Chichikashvili, Roisin McNulty and Anais RogerEvans.

rimarily, a round of applause to the organizers and participants of the great educational event, known as TEDX. Something important to point out was that all the presentations, live and recorded were accurate to us as young adults living in a modern and rapidly developing world. Throughout the conference, information technologies and our use of resources were strongly emphasized; with additional facts on popular culture, the education and censure. The final presentation of Mr. Joseph Khan gave us the impression of a decent conclusion of the whole conference with the information that it provided. His presentation also introduced a, perhaps simple at first, yet absolutely brilliant point about the past, present

and future of our generation’s development. It was the charisma of the presenter and the evident emphasis on globally important facts which made Mr. Khan very thrilling to watch. The introduction was focused on the ‘Baby Boom’ generation, particularly in the United States of America, the generation Mr. Khan himself is part of. As the presenter pointed out, as the children of their generation grew up, consumerism developed quickly so that it could support the new generation. As was mentioned by other notable presenters, during the conference, Mr. Khan talked about the use of Earth’s resources and their particular role in the progress that started in the mid-20th century.

ever’, Mr. Khan wisely pointed out. With this assertion, the audience was now introduced to the second part of the presentation, which focused on the generation of our High School’s students, known as ‘Generation Next’. One remark that the presenter made, which was absolutely clever, clearly illustrated the future our generation holds.

‘Imagine if I am looking for employers’, he started off, ‘but I am no ordinary boss. I tell you that you can come to work whenever you want, spend as much time at work as you want, you are very liberated with your actions at work as well. However, the work has to be done, and I will not pay you. In fact, you will pay me to be occupied. Would you ‘But oil cannot last for- come and work for

me?’ the audience was intrigued and negatively shook their heads in response to the interesting offer. ‘Well, guess what, you perform such tasks every day’, Mr. Khan continued, ‘do you know how? I’ll tell you, FACEBOOK’. The audience was surprised with the interesting formulation of such online activity of ours. The presenter’s point however made clear sense and signified that the future lies not in the resources such as gas and oil, what the ‘Baby boom’ generation made use or, but in information. As Mr. Khan wisely pointed out, unlike the Earth’s resources, the system of information will not collapse if more and more people use it, but will in fact grow.

‘This is up to you to develop,’ Mr. Khan noticed, ‘us… we are done!’ he concluded with a smile. That might not be so true. Although the ‘Baby Boom’ generation did make good use of Earth’s resources, it was the one who started the whole notion of information technologies. World Wide Web was introduced before we were born, and the popular social network was developed when we were in elementary school. You gave us the idea and a good start; it is our turn to continue it. That would be, perhaps, a decent conclusion not only to Mr. Khan’s presentation, but to the to the entire TED-X conference, which hopefully inspired our generation to be ambitious and innovative.

Basketball Invitational Results

IB Column - The (Terror of) Semester I Examinations - Annie May

©IBO

he IB Column is a section that has been created as a response to a growing demand for clarification amongst students about a myriad of academic subjects. By adressing some frequently asked questions we hope to create a forum where students can voice concerns or give advice to one another to help facilitate a more cohesive and supportive learning environment. If you have any questions, concerns, or corrections, please write to us at aas.point@gmail.com.

oming back from winter break with happy thoughts and memories from the experiences that everyone had during the 3 weeks, all the Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors. were thinking the same thing: EXAMS. The terrifying idea of actually working after a long time of rest was not very appealing to students and many are still trying to push it out of their minds. But there actually is a bright side to this looming cloud of stress, exhaustion, and overall terror. After putting down their pencil at the end of their last exam, many students feel a new emotion that is actually quite reassuring: relief. Often, if students put in the time to study hard

Basketball Invitational © AAS Yearbook photography

The first Basketball “Penguin Invitational” tournament of the new year, taking place from the 18th to 19th of January, included a total of 16 teams, 40 games and over 160 student-athletes. All tournament honours were awarded to Jacob Scott, Cole McFaul, Lolo Picquet, Alexandra Hellman, Jonathan Haviv and Catherine Chadwick Athletic director of the year award went to AAS’ very on Richard McLeod.

and prepare, the exams don’t turn out to be so terrible. And what could be better than a week of half days and free food? Contrary to what you may think, teachers write the exam questions with hope that students will be able to answer them. A BBC article about exam tips encourages students to take 10 minute breaks, gradually building up the study time in between. Though cramming is a favorite method of studying for many students, it is not suggested and it is likely that you will retain less information than if you had been studying all week. The main thing to remember on the day of your exam is: RELAX. Stress will not help and sometimes it can even cause students to forget important information,

especially if they were cramming the night before. Think about it: if you work hard these two weeks and complete your exams, less than a month later there is another school break! More time to rest and recover from the terror that you have endured. But in all honesty, exams aren’t that bad, and in the long run they will yield excellent results when receiving your end of semester report card and applying to university.

Removing Profanity from Russian Sentiment

High School Stockholm Syndrome

- Xenia Rakovshik

- Xenia Rakovshik you’d change now that you’re a teacher? What advice would you give yourself now and how receptive do you believe you would be? It would be easy to say I should have worked What were your main harder or gone further hobbies or interests down the professional © Paul Lennon during your years in football road. Howhigh school, or uniever, I think the only versity for that matter? really useful advice I here did you atFavourite bands, got related to finding tend high school and music, etc? balance in life. That what were your favouSports, reading, travel would be the only adrite/least favourite and and music were and vice I could reasonably subjects? still are main interests. give, from that most St. Joseph’s College, My favourite bands other things seem to Dumfries, Scotland.PE when I was in High follow. English & Art were my School were; Deacon favourite subjects. What’s the most Blue, Pet Shop Boys, Maths, Religious Eurythmics, Big Audio interesting aspect of Education and Sewing being a TOK teacher Dynamite, James. were my least favoufor you? rite. What was your plan Recognizing that we after leaving high all continue to learn. You’ve mentioned in school, if you had School should not be some of your classes one? about teachers being that you attended I wanted to become a right. The ability to several different high professional football change one’s mind is schools. How many player. Finally, good important. To be able high schools did you advice helped me to to admit lack of knowlattend and why? choose University, edge and enjoy finding No I only attended which opened doors out more. Also, that one High School as a for travel and lifestyle children and young student. I have worked choices. I still play adults are citizens too at six different Schools football-slowly. and should be treated in Luton, London, with mutual respect Melbourne, Milan, In retrospect are as well as being Lilongwe and Moscow. there attitudes you given guidance when had towards learning required. How do you think your teachers would have described you as a student during your high-school career? Talkative, disruptive and only interested in sport.

Advertisements Open Mic-Night

Penguin Student Council is hosting its first Open Mic Night! Press Come to the green room on the 7th of February (3:455:45) to relax among friends and watch some of the great entertainment that the students of AAS have to offer. Entry is free. Consumables are free. Coffee is not free. Bring your own friends, we will not provide you with friends.Please come! Location: The Green Room (If anybody wants to provide entertainment at this event, please sign up on the signup sheet at the StuCo Board)

If you could change one thing about the high school what would it be and why? I think the pace of life at AAS is too fast. I believe in quality not quantity in terms of learning. We need to slow down a little, remove some of the unnecessary busyness in School. Higher order thinking cannot happen effectively if people (students and teachers) are overworked or stressed. How do you think the current system of grading classwork affects student’s motivation to work or their studies? What system would you propose school’s use to assess their students? In the short time I have spent working at AAS, school assessment policies and procedures continue to improve. Students are mostly motivated to learn and very positive to work with. I believe further improvement would ensue with a criterion referenced system using the IB scoring system to avoid some confusion

which results from our community being familiar with a large number of different national scoring systems. Ideally, in the longer term, assessment in education might focus much more on ‘how we learn’ rather than on ‘what we learn’. All the world’s universities would have to be convinced of this first of course! If you could choose to be any historical figure for a day (philosopher, sports icon, etc…) who would it be, on what day and why? I could choose hundreds; As a TOK teacher I enjoy the quest for knowledge so Einstein or Marie Curie maybe on big discovery days. I’d like to know what Lee Harvey Oswald knew, so being him for that day in Dallas would be interesting. Anybody who has ever been to space-I’d like to do that, to look back and really see where we all live from a totally different perspective.

AAS Art Auction

AS is planning to host an art auction with pieces provided by the AAS community. ant to submit This means that you, be you parent, student, an editorial piece? An teacher or otherwise, can donate your artwork advertisement? Sugto be sold for a good cause. All proceedings gestions, comments or go to the chartiable organization Nastenka concerns? Send us an which works with cancer-stricken patients. e-mail at aas.point@ For more information contact colleen.nelgmail.com son@aas.ru

n October of 2012, deputies of the United Russia party voted a bill into the State Duma for the fulfillment of statute 13:21, proposing a fine for profanity in mass media. In January of 2013, United Russia deputies have already submitted amendments to the bill, preparing for its passing into federal law. In an official statement by State duma Deputy Speaker Sergei Zhelnznayk, the bill proposes fines ranging from two-thousand to

three-thousand roubles for Russian citizens, five-thousand to twenty-thousand roubles for government representatives and up to two-hundred-thousand roubles for corporations and organizations whom engage in “preparing and spreading profanity within mass media”. Officials in the majority party present the bill as a measure facilitating the intellectual growth and protection of the “Russian youth from corrupting and damaging information that

may harm their health and development” including “the use uncultured and inappropriate language, swearing and vulgarity”. Though the law prohibits profanity only in materials meant for children and adolescents, discussions within the Duma have reported to touch on the removal of offending phrases from classic literature of writers such as Mayakovski and Pushkin under the pretenses of encouraging similar employment of disrespectful language in the rhetoric of adolescents in their

online activities. Edinoross clarifies that “ at the moment, discussion about the restriction of inappropriate language in literature is not an issue, although its fully possible that sooner or later it might come to touch on such topics.” However, the in recent weeks the Duma has reported to have received a multitude of complaints regarding the employment of foul language not only in materials for consumers under the age of eighteen, but in print media, radio programs

and television. “Eventually the proposed changes to the law will extend to the prohibition of obscene language on all programs and publications,” Vedomosti writes. Representative of the faction “A Just Russia” Evdokia Bikova proposed the government should consider the regulation of profanity “...not just in mass media, but in the arts and theatres.”

Technology Update - Three-Dimensional Printing - Alexander Rakovshik

any things have advanced further on as time has passed, medicine, travel, even video games (sorry, couldn’t resist), but among them, the 3D printer gives us more than we could ever hope for. Starting off with the concept, of just bringing the 3rd dimension to 2D printing, designs started of creating them within the 1980’s, but back then they were known as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). It’s a good thing then that a couple of MIT students simply named the concept “3D Printing” around 1995, and thus started a period of 3D printing revolutionizing. The concept of 3D printing is fairly simple, it’s basically just like a normal printer, printing out ink across the page, but another function is added. The

part that makes the 3D printer what it is, is that the object being printed is on a lower able platform. So basically, once it prints one layer, the tray moves down a bit so that the next layer can be printed out. Also, one of the best things about this printer, the cost of printing out these items are significantly less than making things such as molds. It even has capabilities

of making biological organs, not that plastic stuff you see at the hospitals, and to do this they just replace the material in the ink cartridge with actual live cells. This innovation can bring who knows how many years to our average life span. But unfortunately, along with being able to make organs (as well as cupcakes I might add), it also is able to print out gun

components, allowing you to literally print out your very own gun, so who knows how that’s going to turn out. While this technology can so far pretty much print out small scale objects (as well as at very long periods of time), it still has so much space to advance and grow. If we can build this right, it could have the ability of actually manipulating the

“copy paste” function, where on one device you have the object being scanned, and on the other device, the object is quickly being printed out with the appropriate substances. For now this device is more for commercial use rather than domestic, but who knows in how many years that can change.

Word Search - Art: Elements of Art

Culture Corner - Sasha Parodi

Square Texture tRIANGLE vALUE viSUAL

he winter holidays may be over, yet interesting and fun activities continue to swamp the ever-active city of Moscow! The Mythology Online exhibit in the Polytechnic Museum. This unique exhibit

combines within itself the real world with the virtual. You can learn all about the life of the virtual world and check out interesting works of artists from Russia, Italy, Canada and much more. The exhibit will be showing until the 10th February, 2013. The entrance fee is 150

rubles per person and it is open daily from 10:00-18:00. Address: New Square, ¾. Want to get out of the Moscow slush and cold, but can’t actually leave the country? Visit the retro-French café Madam Boulanje, where you can get a

wonderful taste French cuisine and pastries. Here, there is truly something for everyone. Stop by and take a look for yourself: Nikitsky Boulevard, 12 (metro station: Arbatskaya)

nitely don’t want to miss the chance to learn more about him through the photo exhibit at the Multimedia Art Museum. The exhibit will be showing up until the 17th February, 2013. Address: Ostozhenka st, 16. Entry If you’re a Charlie Fee: 300. Chaplin fan you defi-

Sudoku Puzzles

Advertisements Theatre Audi- Custom T-Shirts tions Theatre production auditions take place on the 07th of February from 15:45 to 17:45. For more information please contact: The performance will take place on the

o you want custom t-shirts made for your team, class, activity, or event? Absolutely no Photoshop knowledge required! We can work with you to design these t-shirts to your liking. For more information (prices, sample designs, sizes, etc.), contact Sergey Mann at: sergeymann@gmail. com.”

AAS Litmag

end in submissions under the theme of “Elements” to aaslitmag@gmail.com. Submissions may be in the form of illustration, visual arts, prose, poetry... anything else your creative mind desires.

Easy

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AAS empowers each student to: Respect Self & Others, Love Learning, and Contribute as a Globally Aware Citizen in order to achieve individual academicand holistic excellence.

â&#x20AC;&#x153; Untitledâ&#x20AC;?, by Gabi Januskaite (Grade 12)