Jefferson underclassmen students attend Curriculum Fair
Social Studies teacher Mr. Sacks goes over the curriculum in the America and the World Since 1989 semester course and 20th Century World semester course. The Curriculum Fair is helpful to students who are still looking to complete their required history credit. “I initially went to Inquiry Into Ideas [a philosophy course] looking for a social studies elective to fill part of my fourth credit, but I actually had no idea that the class was that interesting,” freshman Jessica Chung said.
January 21, 2020
Jefferson held its Curriculum Fair for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors during eighth period on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
“The Curriculum Fair is for students to be able to go around and learn about the classes that they’re about to register for the upcoming year,” guidance counselor Mrs. McAleer said.
The Curriculum Fair can help students both learn about courses and help them decide which ones to take.
“It could either be classes that [students] have questions on, say a senior that’s deciding between AP Lit versus AP Lang, and they can go to both sessions and try to find out what the differences are,” McAleer said. “Or it could be for students who are just curious what the class is about and so they want to hear from the teacher what the expectations are.”
The Curriculum Fair was especially helpful to students who were unsure of what courses to take. They had the chance to explore different classes for both next year and for future years.
“I found it to be a lot more helpful than I anticipated. I didn’t really know what a lot of the courses they offer here are about. Getting the opportunity to start planning my future was really helpful, especially because TJ offers both STEM and humanities courses that not a lot of other schools have,” Chung said. “It helped me decide on a few of the courses I want to make room for to take in the future.”
Because Jefferson offers so many electives and courses that are not offered at other schools, students do not know much about them. This event helps them learn more about all the opportunities they have and all of the unique classes they can take.
“Going into senior year, I went to the optics course session and I had no idea what it was going in,” junior Zoë Gomez-So said, “but it was a lot of fun to learn about it and hear from Dr. Smith. I probably wouldn’t have signed up for the courses that I did this year if I hadn’t gone.”
The Curriculum Fair is good for students to learn more about courses straight from the teachers who are teaching them.
“It’s one on one time with teachers who may or may note be teaching it but at least are experts in these fields,” McAleer said. “As a counselor, I sit down with students and certainly give them as much information as I have on the classes, but I’m not the one teacher then. So at least if you go to the Curriculum Fair and you get to hear about the presentation and what the classes are going to be about, then you can ask specific questions, and so you get a better idea from the expert.”
One struggle with the Curriculum Fair, however, was trying to find all the sessions and get to them before they filled up.
“It’s stressful for students to have to run around to each course and try to get a spot,” Gomez-So said. “I feel like we should either have less blocks in general or just have a different system. I remember the electronics teacher last year would go from class to class and just give a five minute spiel about what Electronics is, and I think that was a lot more helpful.”
