Curriculum Expands With Winterim

Welcome Winterim

New Curricular Offerings Open the Door to Big Ideas and Questions

IN DECEMBER, THE SCHOOL PUT ITS REGULAR CURRICULUM ON PAUSE TO

INTRODUCE WINTERIM. Modeled after shortterm, mid-year programs offered at the college level, Winterim gave students an opportunity to break from the traditional academic schedule and enroll in one class that was intensely focused on one big idea or question. The new model has become a permanent part of the annual academic program.

One of the things that made Winterim unique was that all courses were designed by faculty, who paired up to co-teach in many instances, and were open to students across grade levels. Rather than incorporating tests and quizzes, students were challenged to complete a final project and put into practice what they learned over the term.

For example, Environmental Racism & Justice, a course taught by science teacher Charles Lovejoy, introduced students to environmental racism issues in their own communities and around the world. Their research into topics such as air and water pollution affecting the Crow nation in Montana, the burakumin in Japan, and communities in Connecticut, included interviews with key stakeholders and documented how environmental issues have resulted in discrimination and poor living conditions for the residents of those communities. Their findings, and proposed solutions, were recorded in an e-book and individual podcasts that served as their final projects.

In Cryptography, taught by math teacher Austin Arkin, students learned about historical and modern ciphers, and used those techniques to design an online escape room as their final project. Students challenged their peers to crack the code and beat the escape room. Those who enrolled in the Emergency Medical Responder course co-taught by Science Department Chair

Kori Rimany ’14 with a book from her new Winterim course, Women & Prison Morgen Fisher ’03 and Spanish teacher Teresita Magana, had the opportunity to pursue EMR certification through the National Registry. In fact, Hailey Lovallo ’21 was continuing to take classes on her own toward her certification this spring.

Planting a seed

“In many ways, I think the structure of Winterim, the theory behind it, is what students will find in college. You’re not getting graded on presentations or mini assignments, just one big project,” said English teacher Kori Rimany ’14, who taught Women & Prison, a course influenced by her college internship experience at the Women’s Prison Association in New York City, and her thesis project on women and the criminal justice system. For each class, students watched one episode of the television series, “Orange is the New Black,” and then participated in a group discussion about what was represented in the show versus the reality. Students considered intersectionality, mental health, the transgender experience, motherhood and sexual violence in the context of

incarceration. For their final project, each student was asked to choose one aspect of a prisoner’s identity and explore how that was portrayed in the media, movies, TV and commercials compared to how it is depicted in reality.

“It all ties back to stereotypes and where stereotypes come from, and why they’re important to recognize,” Rimany said, explaining: “Ultimately, going into my internship in college, I had a very specific image of what I thought prisoners looked like: orange jumpsuit, did something wrong, stole something. When I started working with our criminal justice system, I realized we were locking up a lot of women for these ridiculous things. Maybe they couldn’t afford bail for jumping a turnstile because they were running late and needed to get home to their kids. My own perception of what an incarcerated woman looked like really prevented me from looking at incarcerated women as human beings. It wasn’t until I started working at WPA that I realized the injustice embedded in our social justice system.”

“You have to be aware of perception,” she added. “A lot of times, those stereotypes are born from media, social media and TV shows.”

Her goal for the class was to introduce students to the topic and, as she said, “Maybe it would plant a seed and they would want to learn more.”

Sports is a universal language

Faculty members Amy Paulekas and Cassie Ruscz combined their expertise to co-teach a course examining the issues of race, identity and gender through the lens of sports. Sixteen students, boys and girls, freshmen to seniors, enrolled. Classes met twice daily, four days per week. Morning sessions were devoted to activities, discussions and student presentations on case studies.

Following a mid-day break, students returned to listen to guest speakers, including Luke Sowa ’15, who played football at UConn and Kansas State, Justin Dunn ’13, right-handed pitcher for the Seattle Mariners, and Lenaijah Ferguson ’20, who is playing Division I lacrosse at the University of Hartford. (See Class Notes, page 76.) The class also welcomed former UConn Women’s Basketball player Kathleen Bantley, who is now a professor of criminal justice at Central Connecticut State University; former UConn Men’s Basketball player Christian Foxen; and Laura Brenneman, who was a member of the U.S. team for the first-ever Women’s Baseball World Cup in 2004. (Her jersey is displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame.)

“Sports is a kind of universal language. You can talk about a lot of things through sports,” said Paulekas, who is the Director of Studies and teaches math. She also was captain of the Women’s Crew team at Colby College in Maine, and has coached Girls Varsity Basketball at The Frederick Gunn School for eight years, including four years as Head Coach.

Ruscz, who is Head Coach of Varsity Softball and Assistant Coach for Girls Varsity Basketball, brought to the course her experience as a standout on the NCAA Division III Softball Team at Tufts, where she was a two-time national champion All-American.

Lenaijah Ferguson ’20 of the University of Hartford Women’s Lacrosse Team, Justin Dunn ’13 of the Seattle Mariners, and fullback Luke Sowa ’15 of the Kansas State University Football Team were among the many alumni who returned as guest speakers during this school year. Kori Rimany ’14 talks with Acadia Johnson ’21, who was a student in her Winterim Women & Prison course, on Brinsmade terrace.

Many of the discussions mirrored newsworthy topics such as investigations into Black Lives Matter in the NBA and WNBA, equal pay for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, and local Connecticut cases regarding transgender high school athletes. These topics are the focus of the book, “Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy: The Evolution of Gender, Identity, and Race in Sports,” by Robin Ryle, which served as the course text.

“It hits home for a lot of kids and we’re talking about what’s going on in their own realm,” Ruscz said, noting that one of the goals of the course was to help students become comfortable having conversations around these topics. For their final project, each student conducted video interviews with someone they knew about their experience in sports.

A depth of education

The Emergency Responder course provided hands-on experience for students who may be interested in pursuing a medical career. Students practiced taking their family members’ vital signs using a sphygmomanometer and stethoscope. “It looks easy, but it’s not,” said Magana, who is a licensed medical doctor in Belize and teaches Spanish as well as a popular Pre-Med course as part of the science curriculum.

Students submitted videos demonstrating how to take a patient’s blood pressure, pulse, and listen to lung and heart sounds. They learned how to record a patient’s medical history, how to splint a broken limb, how to perform a trauma assessment, how to use compression to stop bleeding, and how to perform CPR, including verbalizing the steps for using an automated external defibrillator, or AED.

Fisher, who is an EMT with the Washington Ambulance Association, said she had wanted to bring a course like this to The Frederick Gunn School for years, and was able to do so after completing her own certification as an EMR Instructor last year (See story, page 27.) Students had the added benefit of learning from Magana, Fisher said, noting that it’s rare for a medical doctor to teach an EMR/EMT course. “It’s a depth that they wouldn’t necessarily get in a typical class. It’s so valuable.”

Beyond the skills they learned, Fisher said, the course was intended to give students a sense of how they could volunteer in their own communities.

Morgen Fisher ’03 at work as a volunteer EMT for Washington Ambulance Association

Responsible Citizens

MaryAnn Haverstock, Director of IDEAS Lab, and science teacher Steve Bailey P’09, paired up to teach students how to think scientifically — and critically — about what they believe, using analysis of real-world issues related to the global pandemic. The course covered the misleading use of statistics, the different phases of clinical trials, p-hacking (or selective reporting), experimental design, and how conspiracy theories emerge.

Students submitted daily video reflections, published daily blog entries, and created an interactive presentation using Loom on a research article of their choice to demonstrate their understanding of the course material.

“We want our students to walk away from this as responsible citizens in their communities,” Haverstock said. “We want them to do their own work scientifically, bring good data, good observations, and draw good conclusions. There’s a process and a patience required. That’s what we want for them when they are both receiving and understanding scientific information. We want them to go out there and do it the right way.”