From August 27 through August 30, forty-nine members of the O'Bryant Gateway Class of 2011 came together for a four-day program orientation, led by the Grade 9 Gateway staff. This week was packed with activities designed to give the students a road map to success in high school, college and their future careers.
Highlights of the week included:
- Challenging our students to solve an unsolved mathematics problem in graph theory;
- Taking our first (half) practice PSAT exam;
- Learning memorization techniques used by medical and law students;
- Designing our class emblem (First-Class Tigers!);
- A visit from Tony Jack, this year's Obed Finch Slingerland Prize winner from Amherst College;
- Writing fantasy resumes; and
- A closing luncheon hosted by Wentworth Institute of Technology.
During the orientation, all students were challenged to master a memorization task with 100% accuracy, using study aids they had created themselves. Twelve students met this standard of perfection on their first try, while an additional twenty-three students achieved near-perfect scores. On the first re-test administered one day later, twenty-two students attained the 100% passing score, with an additional seven barely missing the mark. We're going to persist with this challenge until every member of the class is over the bar!
Congratulations to all forty-nine students for your hard work this week!
Learning how to work together ....
("Thinking Interdependently")
Studying can be fun!
Tony Jack, Amherst College Class of 2007:
