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Weekly Reports – 2026 Week One – Afternoon Classes & Dorm

Posted on July 2, 2026 by - Uncategorized

Publishing (Christa Bell, Instructor)

Students this week worked on content for the first edition of The Thinker, the weekly student-published newspaper. Content ideas ranged from jokes and puzzles to coverage of the program’s first meeting about the government. They all wrote their own articles and contributions then practiced reading and editing each other’s work. Then we brainstormed content ideas for week 2’s edition and discussed the basics of news values (what makes something news) and how we make decisions about what’s most important to people who are (in our case) reading the paper.

Tuesday and Wednesday worked on content and made decisions about the style of the paper.
Thursday – did layout and continued to work on content. Brainstormed for Week 2.
Friday – discussed news values, layout and design principles and made decisions about story placement. The second class finished the layout and folded papers after they were printed.

Musical (Greg Stratton, Instructor)

We read through the script and blocked 4 songs and some dialogue scenes. As Week 1 continued, we worked through blocking.

Drawing (Shawna Nile Batchelor, Instructor)

Our first week of Drawing was about getting to know each other using prompts and drawing from the imagination. By witnessing each other’s drawing styles and responses to the same prompts, we learned a little more about our unique perspectives and how the same starting point can yield dramatically different results. Beginning with drawing from the imagination is also a great way for the instructor to gauge skill levels, working styles, interests, and personality. The first week is a key time for observing and establishing group dynamics and setting the stage for our work together over the next few weeks.

Tuesday, June 9 (Both Classes)
Introduction and Getting To Know Each Other

After meeting the instructor and hearing about her background and interest in art, students were given a few minutes to think on the following points and write them out on an index card before sharing with the class:

  • Drawing experience
  • Summer learning goals
  • Favorite things/ways to draw

Next, on four larger blank index cards, students were given the following categories and asked to choose a word for each category, then write each one on a card labeled with their name:

  • Texture
  • Place
  • Feeling
  • Animal

Each student then passed their cards to the student on their left, who flipped the cards over, put their name on them, and drew a sketch for each word.

Using the sketches made on each card, students created a drawing combining all of the elements into one drawing– whether via story or composition. The results were wonderful and very interesting!

Wednesday, June 10
Class begins with an overview of the pencil hardness scale, which uses “B” (“black”) to indicate soft, darker lead, and “H” (“hard”) to indicate a harder, lighter lead, with higher numbers in either direction indicating increasing softness or hardness. The middle of the scale, “HB”, is used for the “No. 2” pencil, with “F” then “H” used for increasingly harder leads, followed by 2H, 3H, etc.. In the opposite direction from HB is “B”, followed by 2B, 3B, etc.

Students work together to sort the bin of drawing pencils into the correct order based on what they just learned. They are then encouraged to sample a range of different pencils to get familiar with the effects they can produce, applying them to the drawings started the previous day. Time was set aside for students to share their drawings with each other, and everyone was given the choice to welcome constructive feedback or not. Most chose to accept feedback, all of which was thoughtful and supportive.

Thursday, June 11
Class 1: For the first half of class, students continued working on their drawings from the previous day. In the second half of class, students were allowed to work on an art assignment for Humanities class: maps of their imaginary societies. For Class 2, students continued working on their drawings.

Friday, June 12
Students put finishing touches on their drawings, then passed them to their neighbor who was asked to reimagine the drawing in their own style. Students could change anything about the drawing, but had to use the same words their classmates used to create the original drawing. In the last half of class, students were given the option to sketch the antique upholstered chairs in the drawing alcove, valuable practice in drawing from direct observation– a much different experience from drawing solely from the imagination.

Mixed Ensemble (Brandon LaFleur, Instructor)

This week was primarily geared toward ensemble sound development, and getting acquainted with the course format. We worked on tuning, tone building, rhythm reading, and scale reading. Students were given ample time to prepare randomly assigned scales (assigned by rolling a dodecahedral die) then perform the scale as an ensemble.

M-F: Tone building, tuning, scales, rhythm reading and counting, ensemble sound development.

Dorm Life (Kathy Barrios, Coordinator of Housing)

This week was all about getting students acquainted to dorm life. We had meetings about rules and procedures for the Program. We also talked about the Government of the Governor’s Program. Students that wanted to run gave speeches and elections were held on Friday. We had many activities inside and outside the dorm this weekend: shopping trips to Albertsons and Dollar Tree, our weekly dance, and more!

Monday: Ms. Kathy led a meeting about our token economy.

Tuesday: Mr. Brown and Ms. Kathy led a meeting about the Government of the Governor’s Program, what offices can be held, and how to run for office. Students began getting others to nominate them for offices.

Wednesday: Students played a lot a ping pong and board games with each other at the dorm.

Thursday: We had government speeches where students got to plead their case for why the other students should vote for them.

Friday: Students received their bank for their weekly grades and voted for the Government positions. We took students to the local soccer fields to play soccer, and we watched the movie ParaNorman at movie night.

Saturday: Students were able to watch Gravity Falls and make Father’s Day cards in the lobby in the morning. We also had counselors available to teach students how to do their own laundry. We took students to Albertson’s after lunch where they could use their own money to buy snacks and other items; they also had the opportunity to use Albertson’s gift cards to get healthy foods and other non-contraband items. Students were able to play OverCooked in the lobby, go to the Splash Pad at Millennium Park, and do Trivia as well. We had chicken tacos for dinner (black bean tacos for our vegetarian students). We ended the night with out first dance of the summer!

Sunday: We gave students the opportunity to go to church if they wanted to. In the lobby, students were able to make their own bookmarks and watch a marathon of Ben10 episodes. After lunch, students were able to go to Dollar Tree, play Mario Kart, and play board games with the Markstroms (who teach Critical Thinking). Students were also able to play Guitar Hero and received Sundae Sunday, where we give students ice cream and some toppings for a fun cold treat (which is certainly welcome at this very hot time of year!). The counselors made spaghetti for dinner with the option of adding ground turkey (which was cooked separately from the sauce). We also had our first Big Room Check, which is where Ms. Kathy checks every room for cleanliness. The majority of students did really well!

Weekly Reports – 2026 Week One – Morning Classes

Posted on July 1, 2026 by - Uncategorized

Freshman (First Year) Classes:

Science (Ryan Patin, Instructor)

Over the course of this week we utilized our time getting to know each other and learning principles of Scientific Methodology with a critical thinking approach.

Monday: Meet and Greet. Allowing the students to learn about me and getting to know each of them.

Tuesday: introduction to the scientific method overview and covered Purpose and Research.

Wednesday: Reviewed the prior day’s lesson and covered Hypothesis and Experimentation.

Thursday: Reviewed the prior day’s lesson and covered data collection, analysis, graphs, trend, and understanding what our data truly means.

Friday: Reviewed the prior day’s lesson and covered Conclusion and an overall review of the process and application.

Composition (Ryan Abshire, Instructor)

Week One: Becoming Better Readers and Writers

For the first week, the students did multiple in-class writing exercises, including group activities. While each of the following weeks focus on a particular genre, we used this week to explore students’ interests and preferences in genre, media, and writing. In addition to homework writing assignments, on Tuesday the students received an assignment sheet for their first major writing assignment due Friday, a 3-page essay about their history with reading and writing.

Humanities  (Chris Hebert, Instructor)

Humanities are defined as “ the branches of learning (such as philosophy, arts, or languages) that investigate human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes (as in physics or chemistry) and social relations (as in anthropology or economics)”. In Humanities I at the GPGC, we cover three branches: history, philosophy, and literature.

Week One is concerned with the history of Greece, starting from the Neolithic era to the early beginnings of the peoples who would become the Greeks. As part of this crash course, we covered foundational myths of city-states and how those stories helped explain the culture and values each of these places held. For example, Athens chose Athena as their patron goddess and so the city took its name from her, and excelled in education, philosophy, and was the birthplace of Democracy.

Monday: Introductions, explanation of expectations and procedures, go over what we’ll cover this summer.

Tuesday-Wednesday: Mediterranean history, discuss foundational myths

Thursday-Friday: Students were put into pairs and given the task to craft their own foundational myth. They had to come up with a list of values, etc, that they hold dear and come up with a story to show how their created city-state is a beacon for those ideals.

Sophomore Classes:

Composition (Ryan Abshire, Instructor)

Week One’s Topic is: Finding Your Voice
The students spent week one learning to discuss topics and work together to explore their writing journey and goals. For the first week, we did various activities to gauge student interests and what got them excited about writing and reading. Each week moving forward will focus on specific genres and types of writing: fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and others.

Monday, in addition to getting to know one another, the students broke into groups and received the lines of a song printed out individually on cardstock. Working together, they assembled the lines into their own version, attempting to locate patterns, rhymes, or (for some) geometrical similarity. When they were all assembled, we listened to the original song, “Shake the Frost,” by Tyler Childers. For homework they wrote a 100 word detailed description of a strong image that invoked a memory.

Tuesday: Students received the assignment sheet for their first major weekly writing assignment, the Artist’s Statement, which is a reflective essay in which they describe their experience, preferences, or goals in writing and reading. We discussed different forms of writing and how many genres and styles can overlap. We read two poems, “A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman and “Mussels” by Mary Oliver, both of which use an animal image to contrast and compare with human experience. For homework, the students wrote a brief piece about an experience with a non-pet animal, with full artistic freedom regarding form and format.

Wednesday: As a class, we read through two different translations of “The Panther” by Rainer Maria Rilke, examining the possibilities of taking the same poem (originally in German) and finding subtleties of meaning. Students then wrote a letter to Mr. Rilke inquiring about the nature of poetry. For homework, they were assigned to read Letter 1 from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet and make progress on their Artist’s Statement.

Thursday: We discussed effective paragraphs and how to stay focused in their essay using a classic five-paragraph structure and, for paragraphs, five sentences. The students spent time working on their introductions and body paragraphs while I met with each student individually to discuss their progress and answer any questions. After general discussion about the writing progress, essay format, and writing effective paragraphs, students spent class time making progress on their writing projects while taking turns to have individual conferences with me about their paper and address any concerns.

Friday: To wrap up the week and prepare students for next week’s focus on fiction, we had an extended group discuss of various genres of writing, like science fiction, mystery, historical fiction, and realism. We used this as a basis to identify and refresh the students’ memories on the six elements of fiction—character, setting, style, theme, POV, and plot. Students then wrote the first line of a story and passed the story along, each contributing one sentence, with the goal of making a coherent story that fulfilled all six elements. For homework, they are tasked with creating a polished piece of microfiction out of the story they started.

Humanities  (Chris Hebert, Instructor)

Humanities are defined as “ the branches of learning (such as philosophy, arts, or languages) that investigate human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes (as in physics or chemistry) and social relations (as in anthropology or economics)”. In Humanities II at the GPGC, we cover three branches: history, philosophy, and literature and how those play into the ideas of “Utopia” and “Dystopia”.

For week one, we refreshed our memories of Plato’s “Republic” and discussed his own version of Utopia and discussed the flaws of this system. We also started reading Sir Thomas Moore’s “Utopia” and discussed the literary tradition that he uses in his own little book.

Monday-Tuesday: refresher on Plato
Wednesday: Intro to Sir Thomas Moore, his life, and his time period
Thursday-Friday: Read and discussed “Utopia”

Senior and Grad (Third & Fourth Year) Classes:

English (Jack Vanchiere, Instructor)

This week we got started with introducing new folks to each other and discussing forms and techniques for reading, writing, and workshopping with one another.

Monday-Tuesday: Introduction

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Ab Illo Acrostic poem writing

History (Carson Savoie, Instructor)

We began our first week discussing the life, work, and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Key themes to our seminar discussions were the notions of reclamation, recollection, memorialization, and collective memory in the political consciousness of the United States. Students were introduced to several speeches and statements written and orated by Dr. King, including his (in)famous 1967 speech delivered at Riverside Church, New York City, colloquially known as “Beyond Vietnam.” As well as debates over the memory of Dr. King waged in the political arena of the United States, such as Ronald Reagan’s 1983 remarks on the creation of Martin Luther King Day.

Students were challenged to juxtapose Dr. King and his famous “Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom, in comparison to Dr. King in the latter, often forgotten, years of his life from 1965-1968. By beginning our discussion of the Civil Rights/Black Freedom Movement in American Memory with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the class quickly challenged conventional knowledge of the movement as a whole. In doing so, our class gained insight into the production of historical memory, both by professional historians, and by those outside of traditional academia.

Monday, June 8th — Introductions & Icebreakers

Tuesday, June 9th — Introduction to Course Theme
Reading: May, Page, “Reclaim King: Beyond Sanitized Narratives.”

Wednesday, June 10th — “Recalling” King
Reading: Harding, Vincent, Introduction “Setting the Captives Free” & Ch.1 “The Inconvenient Hero: The Last Years of Martin Luther King Jr.” from Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero, Orbis Books, 2008, pgs. 1-22.
Video: “Rev. Jesse Jackson & Dr. Vincent Harding on MLK Memorial, DC March for Jobs & Freedom 2 of 2,” Democracy Now!, 8/26/2011, 9:07min.

Thursday, June 11th — Narratives of Nonviolence (as a Philosophy of Life)
Reading: Martin, Michael, “A Peaceful Demonstration of Our Feeling Toward the Death”: University Students in Lafayette, Louisiana, React to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Assassination,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Summer, 2000, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Summer, 2000), pp. 301-316.

Friday, June 12th — Film Day
Film: King in the Wilderness: The Last Years of MLK Jr.’s Life (2018)

International Relations (Joshua Brown, Instructor)

We spent the first week introducing the concepts important to the study of International Relations – states, nations, war, trade and others. We also discussed the book we will be using for the majority of the class: Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel Drezner. I also spent some time getting a feel for the students’ awareness of international news and suggested some reliable news sources for them to start paying attention to. One of the weekly assignments the students will have is to read an article from one of those sources and prepare a summary and analysis for the class.

Musically Gifted (MG):

(Brandon LaFleur, Instructor)

This week we introduced some of the basic components of music study including: music theory, music history, aesthetics, philosophy, acoustics, and practice. We also started practicing music theory basics like note reading and key signatures. We discussed the harmonic series and its various influences on music perception and composition. Studying the harmonic series as a fundamental aspect of sound led to a discussion on the five primary instrument families and how instruments are categorized into each one.

M: Overview of various subdisciplines and course structure.
T: Note Reading (Treble and Bass), Key Signatures, and Fundamentals of notational literacy
W: Acoustics and the Harmonic Series, Instrument Families
TH: Practice on note reading (Treble and Bass) introduction to Medieval Musical conventions.
F: Extra Practice and generic interval preparation.

 

Weekly Reports – 2024 Week One – Afternoon Classes and Dorm

Posted on June 17, 2024 by - Afternoon Classes, Dorm Life, Weekly Reports

Throughout the summer we will be posting weekly reports from the classes. Please let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to see or if you have any questions for specific instructors. We will be posting the first issue of The Thinker (the student newspaper) as soon as the online version is ready.

We are also posting regularly on Facebook. You don’t have to join Facebook to see our posts. The link is: https://www.facebook.com/gpgcla/

Afternoon Classes:

Choir (Colette Tanner, Instructor)

We are working on songs that use “water” as an analogy for the “journey of life.” If you would like to see and hear the repertoire we have been working on, here is a link to the CHOIR BLOG: https://gpgcsings.blogspot.com/

Critical Thinking (Robert and Jessica Markstrom, Instructors)

This week the students played Risk so the instructors could discern the students’ personalities while playing games.  On Friday we played several games:  Get Bit, Tile Chess, and Twixt.

Debate (Robert and Jessica Markstrom, Instructors)

This week we introduced students to basic debate concepts and the speech side of forensics (individual events).  Students started debate concepts by arguing whether a weapon existed or whether a person died after viewing a 20-second video of a video game.  Later in the week, students learned about Aristotle’s 3 modes of persuasion and the 3 types of debate resolutions.  For individual events, students were shown videos of national forensic finalists in college and high school speech and debate in Impromptu Speaking, Informative Speaking, and Humorous Interpretation.  We also showed them a humorous spoken word poetry performance and a dramatic spoken word poetry performance.

P.E. (Ancil Delaney, Instructor)

The students played racquetball.

Storytelling Through Documentary (Julian Quebedeaux, Instructor)

This week we got to know each other a little by sharing some of our favorite videos. Next we began to discover how to be a good interviewer by using our body language to give off positive and curious vibes to whomever is telling the story. We finished off the week with some mock interviews!

Dorms (Kathy Barrios, Coordinator of Housing)

To be updated.

Weekly Reports – 2024 Week One – Morning Classes

Posted on June 17, 2024 by - Academics, Composition, Humanities, Science, Weekly Reports

Throughout the summer we will be posting weekly reports from the classes. Please let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to see or if you have any questions for specific instructors. We will be posting the first issue of The Thinker (the student newspaper) as soon as the online version is ready.

We are also posting regularly on Facebook. You don’t have to join Facebook to see our posts. The link is: https://www.facebook.com/gpgcla/

Freshman (First Year) and Sophomore (Second Year) Classes:

Flex Science (Ryan Patin, Instructor)

To be updated.

Flex Composition (Meilyn Woods, Instructor)

Students answered the question, “What is a Story?” and used those answers to brainstorm and develop their own personal aesthetics. Those aesthetics informed their reading of several works of fiction in order to write their own short stories. We read, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez, There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury, and The World is Ending Tomorrow by Kimberly Terasaki. Students also did in class writing and brainstormed their short story assignment.

Monday- students did icebreakers and got to know each other before we all set goals for what we wanted to achieve this summer. After setting our goals we did a spontaneous writing sprint where they had to impress me with their writing.

Tuesday- Students learned the basics of fiction writing, especially the Short Story. As a class we answered, “What is a story?” then we read The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez and used their definition to decide if we considered this a story as well as commenting on the craft elements such as theme, metaphor, form, and structure.

Wednesday- Started class with a writing sprint to begin writing their short stories. We also set rules for our creative writing workshop (establishing the environment that we want to embody) for the summer. Then we did in class writing.

Thursday- Read “There will come soft rains” by Ray Bradbury and discussed its craft, his voice and aesthetic. Then we did in class writing.

Friday- Went over the guidelines for grading and deadlines. Then we read “The World is Ending Tomorrow” and did a mini workshop on it. Then in groups of 2 the students shared their ideas for their weekly project with each other. Then we ended with in-class writing.

Freshmen Humanities  (Chris Hebert, Instructor)

On Monday, I sat with the Freshmen and held introductions. I told them of my educational background and what I do during the normal school year. We discussed what grades they were advancing into and where they were from. I discussed with students my plan for the class—a three pronged approach to the large area that is “Humanities”: that we would discuss history (in particular of that of the Mediterranean world), philosophy (heavily focusing on Plato’s Republic), and literature (applying the concepts of “right and wrong” and “justice” to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar). Tuesday, we began with history and started with the different groups that immigrated to Greece, with focus on the Minoans and the Mycenaeans. We discussed how the myth of Theseus is now thought of as a metaphor for how Greece overthrew the Minoan civilization through the conflict between Theseus and the Minotaur. Students and I drew parallels to this myth and The Hunger Games series. We explored the topic of the Greek Dark Ages and the earliest writings of Greek Antiquity—those being the surviving epic poems of Homer. (We also discussed the real life Troy and how archaeology has found burnt ruins and rubble in modern day Turkey, which correlated with the area that was thought to be Troy.) Students then were assigned to investigate the idea of foundational myths and summarize it and share it with everyone else on Wednesday. For rest of the week, we continued looking into foundational myths of the various city-states of Greece and how these myths influenced their various outlooks on governance and took a crash course through the overall concept of Greek mythology, as it will be referenced more than once throughout various points in history, philosophy, and literature.

Sophomore Humanities  (Jessica Markstrom, Instructor)

This week served as an introduction to utopias and dystopias.  Concepts included power and social structures (top-down versus bottom-up organization), censorship, happiness, developing meaningful relationships, communication, access to information, personal expression, the role of technology in our lives, and government oppression.  We read through part 1 of Fahrenheit 451 (50th-anniversary edition).

Monday – we went over the syllabus.  Students learned about how Thomas More’s book transformed the word utopia.  Utopia used to mean “no place” and eutopia meant an idyllic or perfect place.  More intentionally changed the term eutopia to mean utopia.  We discussed how this meant that creating a utopia would be difficult.  We defined dystopia and we discussed whether our current society is a dystopia or utopia.  The students agreed it was a mixture of both but leaned more towards dystopia and shared their reasons for that answer.  To highlight critical thinking, I provided students with information from Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now regarding how much society has progressed since the Enlightenment.

Tuesday – We discussed pages 3-24 of Fahrenheit 451.  We discussed censorship, happiness, the effect book banning had on that society, the role technology plays in that society, reasons why that society is a dystopia, meaningfulness in communication, government regulation of people’s activities, pressure to conform to society, and ways in which our society is like and different from the society in the book.

Wednesday – We discussed pages 24-46 of Fahrenheit 451.  I played the song “Fake Happy” by Paramore and asked them to apply it to a character in the novel.  Discussion topics included how it’s important for people to recognize (or “see”) us, why it’s important for society to value the lives of children, how technology can isolate us from others, the importance of meaningful communication in order to build relationships with others, authoritative government structures, literary motifs like foreshadowing, and post-trauma responses.

Thursday – We discussed pages 47-68 of Fahrenheit 451.  The class discussion focused on how societies that limit thinking and promote immediate satisfaction can impart short attention spans (several students related TikTok and other social media platforms to the society in the novel); how constant stimulation can make it difficult to think and communicate with others; that oppressive societies will force uniformity and equality, will attack intelligent people, and will attack people that are seen as different or that refuse to conform; that authoritative government systems will suppress freedom of expression, freedom of speech, access to information, and access to communication; parasocial relationships and how societies will sometimes use technology as a means to supplant person-to-person interactions; and how do we determine happiness.

Friday –Students worked on the first assignment for the Utopia Project.  The assignment was Utopia Project:  Describing Your Utopia.  This requires the students to think about the size of the population, territory, social structures, inclusions of family, use of technology, and access to concepts like religion within their utopia.

Senior (Third Year) Classes:

Senior Science (Josh Brown, Instructor)

To be updated.

Senior Composition (Meilyn Woods, Instructor)

Seniors are required to produce a piece of creative writing every week. Before writing, students answered the question, “What is a Story?” and used those answers to critique other works in order to help students indirectly think about their own writing for their portfolios. On top of in class writing we read the following craft essays: Perfectionism by Anne Lamott, Beginnings by Anne Hood, and Endings by Elissa Schappell. We read Thrush, a poem by Gabrielle Grace Hogan, The World is Ending Tomorrow, a short story by Kimberly Terasaki, and The Weatherman’s Heart, a flash fiction piece by Tessa Yang.

Monday- students did icebreakers and got to know each other before we all set goals for what we wanted to achieve this summer. After setting our goals we did a spontaneous writing sprint where they had to impress me with their writing.

Tuesday- Students learned the basics of fiction writing, especially the Short Story. As a class we answered, “What is a story?” then we read The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez and used their definition to decide if we considered this a story as well as commenting on the craft elements such as theme, metaphor, form, and structure.

Wednesday- Started class with a writing sprint to begin writing their short stories. We also set rules for our creative writing workshop (establishing the environment that we want to embody) for the summer. Then we did in class writing.

Thursday- Read “There will come soft rains” by Ray Bradbury and discussed its craft, his voice and aesthetic. Then we did in class writing.

Friday- Went over the guidelines for grading and deadlines. Then we read “The World is Ending Tomorrow” and did a mini workshop on it. Then in groups of 2 the students shared their ideas for their weekly project with each other. Then we ended with in-class writing.

Senior Humanities  (Jessica Markstrom, Instructor)

This week served as an introduction to power and government, as these themes coincide with the subject “man and the state.”  Concepts included power, division of power within governments, where governments get their power, use of government power with a focus on oppression, censorship, control of information, public goods and the distribution of public goods, and loneliness.  We read halfway through Part 2 of 1984.

Monday – we went over the syllabus. Students learned why we have government by examining anarchy, the social contract, and the use of force through Locke and Hobbes.   We discussed public goods with a focus on the government being responsible for providing public goods.  We defined government and explained sources of power in government with a focus on government types (autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy).  We examined limited power governments (constitutional governments, separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism) and compared them to governments that have little to no limits on their power (authoritarian governments and totalitarian governments).

Tuesday – We discussed pages 1-48 of 1984.  We discussed censorship, surveillance, public goods, happiness, meaningfulness in communication, government regulation of people’s activities and thoughts, and ways in which our society is like and different from the society in the book.  The students were fascinated by the two minutes hate and the watchful eyes of Big Brother posters.

Wednesday – We discussed pages 49-81 of 1984.  There was a strong focus on public goods and the lack of quality provided to the people in the book.  Propaganda was a central discussion, especially in relation to the lack of public goods versus the state’s propaganda regard production.  We discussed the extreme lengths of the government to use power as a tool of oppression by making thoughts and facial reactions crime.  Students were very interested in Syme, an intelligent character, and were worried that he would be “vaporized” by the government.  The students were particularly interested in the following statements by Orwell: “the past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth,” “in the end the party would announce that 2 and 2 were 5 and you would have to believe it,” and “the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.  It was their final most essential command.”  The students were surprised to find out that Orwell did not come up with 2+2=5 but repurposed the concept from Soviet Union Propaganda for their 5-year plans.

Thursday – We discussed pages 82-117 of 1984.  The class discussion focused on how the government prevented a person from developing their ownlife.  The students recognized that in order for the totalitarian state to have full control there could only be allegiance to the government.  The students also noted how the society had become numb to violence.  They learned about the proletariat aka “proles.”  We discussed the importance of language, especially due to Orwell’s inclusion of newspeak, doublethink, and thoughtcrime.

Friday – We discussed pages 118-156 of 1984.  The class discussion focused on how the government prevented a person from developing relationships with other people as a means of control.  We discussed loneliness and the importance of human connection.  The students understood that Julia wearing makeup was a political act, as well as noting that most of the acts within this section were both personal and political.  Again, we explored the theme of oppression within totalitarian governments.

Musically Gifted Studies  (Brandon LaFleur, Instructor)

To be updated.

Weekly Reports – 2022 Week One – Afternoon Classes and Dorm

Posted on June 13, 2022 by - Afternoon Classes, Dorm Life, Weekly Reports

Throughout the summer we will be posting weekly reports from the classes. Please let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to see or if you have any questions for specific instructors. We will be posting the first issue of The Thinker (the student newspaper) as soon as the online version is ready.

We are also posting regularly on Facebook. You don’t have to join Facebook to see our posts. The link is: https://www.facebook.com/gpgcla/

Afternoon Classes:

Choir (Colette Tanner, Instructor)

We have finished voice testing and are starting to work on our music. We have also worked on a Music Theory review. They are doing extremely well!

P.E. (Ancil Delaney, Instructor)

This week the students played table tennis, tennis wall ball and swam.

Critical Thinking (Robert and Jessica Markstrom, Instructors)

This week the students took a personality test that allowed the instructor to see what types of traits they had (shy, leader, etc.) in order to place them into teams. Games introduced this week included: What Were You Thinking?, Pirateer (a MENSA select game that utilizes vectors), Ticket to Ride, Twixt, Score 4 (a 3D version of Connect 4), Speed Chess, Blokus, and Hippos and Crocodiles.

Dorm Life:

The students got acclimated to dorm life this week! After classes they are able to play ping pong, board games, and card games in the lobby. We discussed the history of the GPGC Government which we will have our first official meeting of on Monday. 

On Friday after class the students got their first weekly allowance (based on their grades in their classes and dorm behavior/cleanliness). That night they enjoyed playing soccer or competing in an Uno Tournament followed by a movie night of The Princess Bride with popcorn, soda, and candy. Saturday we took the kids for a picnic in the park with more soccer and frisbee. In the afternoon they got to go to the comic book store and Albertson’s to stock up on snacks for their rooms. Dinner that night was spaghetti and meatballs. After dinner everyone had lots of fun at our first GPGC Dance of the summer. Sunday started with donuts and a viewing of recent GPGC musicals from previous years. The kids also had arts and crafts time to make father’s day cards for next weekend. In the afternoon we took the students swimming and had Mario Kart game time. After having Cane’s for dinner the students attended the Calcasieu British Brass Band performing on campus and were treated to ice cream afterwards.

Weekly Reports – 2022 Week One – Morning Classes

Posted on June 13, 2022 by - Academics, Composition, Creative Writing, Humanities, International Relations, Psychology, Science, Weekly Reports

Throughout the summer we will be posting weekly reports from the classes. Please let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to see or if you have any questions for specific instructors. We will be posting the first issue of The Thinker (the student newspaper) as soon as the online version is ready.

We are also posting regularly on Facebook. You don’t have to join Facebook to see our posts. The link is: https://www.facebook.com/gpgcla/

Freshmen (First Year) Classes:

Freshmen Science (Calvin Runnels, Instructor)

We had an excellent first week in science. The students were each assigned a plant for the summer, and they were asked to choose any ONE aspect of its care to change — we’ll compare each plant’s growth to a control plant over the course of the summer. The kids got pretty creative, from watering their plants with Gatorade instead of water to depriving their plant of light. In class this week, we carried out experiments to explore important topics in chemistry such as density, precision versus accuracy, and acid-base reactions. We are emphasizing laboratory safety, scientific note taking, and above all, excitement and curiosity about the world around us!

Freshman Composition (Reese Menefee, Instructor)

During the first week of class, students were exposed to major literary genres. They discussed and analyzed works of short fiction and wrote stories of their own. Students are becoming more comfortable with their own writing and the class atmosphere is encouraging and community-focused. Students have been excited to share their work aloud with the class and their feedback has been constructive and thoughtful. Overall, this was a wonderful first week of class! I am impressed by the students’ creative ideas, writing capabilities, and critical thinking skills!

Freshmen Humanities  (Christine Bertrand, Instructor)

We all differ in our beliefs and values, holding a wide diversity of opinions on everything from politics to popsicles. While these differences could and should present opportunities for fascinating, engaging civil discourse, a quick peek at Facebook proves that instead of celebrating and embracing others’ views and taking the time to find commonalities, many of us instead attack and disparage one another. It should be clear to anyone living in our society today that humanity as a whole needs better communication skills.

Considering the need for better communication skills overall and as a foundation for continued discussion, this week the Humanities I class has focused on the art of discussion and persuasion, identifying various means of conveying one’s message. We’ve considered various categories of thought and evidence, including illogical, emotional reasoning, scientific reasoning based on empirical proof, and philosophical reasoning based on subjective but logical assumptions. We then explored the three primary categories of rhetorical appeals used in persuasion (logos, pathos, ethos) to equip students to recognize them in texts or media and to use them for developing their own arguments.

Graduate Classes:

Grad Psychology (Dr. Linda Brannon, Instructor)

Psychology includes a wide range of topic, which even a full college semester cannot cover adequately. No chance to do so during the 6-week GPGC session. Therefore, I chose to ask students what they were most interested in so that we could cover information about their interests.
I began by showing them a 40-item True/False quiz that includes some of the “myths” of psychology—things that are “common knowledge” yet incorrect. As expected, the students did poorly (but I did not score the activity or count it for a grade). The activity worked to prompt a discussion that covered many topics in psychology.


I asked students to write down topics that were covered in the quiz or that they had heard about and wanted to know more. This list forms the basis for the class this summer.

Conflict and Diplomacy (Jessica Markstrom, Instructor)

Students watched the movie Dr. Strangelove. It provides an understanding of the Cold War international system and brinksmanship. The class engaged in a discussion regarding the Russian invasion of South Ossetia and Abkhazian regions of Georgia in 2008, the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, and the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The students started the state development project on Friday. Each student will run their own country and engage in international relations with the other countries in the fictitious international system.

Graduate Creative Writing (Reese Menefee, Instructor)

During the first week of class, students were introduced to creative writing! We discussed genre, craft, and literary elements of fiction. Students were introduced to flash fiction this week. They read, analyzed, and discussed three pieces of flash fiction in class, as well as an article relating to craft. In addition to literary analysis, students participated in daily writing activities. Overall, this was a great first week of class! Due to the small size of the class, every student was able to share their work aloud and receive constructive feedback from each other! The work each student produced this week was creative and included strong sensory details and imagery. Each student has their own style of writing rooted in tone and interest! I am proud of their participation this week and very excited to read more of their work as their writing progresses in my class!

Weekly Reports – Grad Classes, Final Weeks

Posted on July 22, 2019 by - Afternoon Classes, Psychology, Weekly Reports

Conflict and Diplomacy (Ms. Jessica Markstrom, Instructor)

We continued an exploration of the causes of civil conflict by reinforcing economic sources, evaluating group and individual reasons, and addressed how the flow of weapons can also create instability. We watched “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” for the rest of the short week. This movie provides a biting evaluation of the Cold War and brinkmanship with nuclear weapons. While dated, the issue of accidental war in an age of nuclear weapons coincided with topics we discussed earlier in the summer.

 

Grad Psychology (Dr. Linda Brannon, Instructor)

During week 4, we began topics related to social psychology. Students had chosen topics upon which they were to prepare information to share with the class. We also saw Crash Course videos on social psychology topics. Students had papers due on Thursday.

Our final week consisted of discussions and evaluations of several of the most controversial studies in psychology, including Milgram’s study on obedience and Zimbardo’s prison study, which was conducted at Stanford University. These studies raised ethical questions due to the disturbing results. In addition, we will have an exam on Thursday, which will have a similar format to the exams we have had throughout the session, plus some written questions that will require evaluation of topics in social psychology.

Weekly Reports – Afternoon Classes, Final Weeks

Posted on July 22, 2019 by - Academics, Afternoon Classes, Music, Performances, Weekly Reports

Here are some reports from the teachers of each of our afternoon classes for the last week in the Program. We have organized them by class:

Choir (Colette Tanner, Instructor)

The students are working very hard on preparing their music for the end of the summer concert. Students have also been taking rhythmic and melodic dictation. All of their repertoire is listed on our GPGC CHOIR BLOG with listening links. We have discussed our END OF THE SUMMER BRIDGE PROJECT that is due next Wednesday. We have also discussed dress for the end of the year concert. The students seem excited about their songs and I greatly enjoy working with them.

 

Computer Tech (Barry Humphus, Instructor)

Students were introduced to the Arduino platform and Integrated Developer Environment and constructed their first of several electronic circuits.

 

Critical Thinking (Ms. Jessica Markstrom, Instructor) 

This week students participated in a quiz bowl. Questions come from a high school Quiz Bowl tournament. We also played games. Games included Blokus, Chess, Hippos and Crocs, Lords of Waterdeep, Score Four, Set, Stratego, Tsuro, and Twixt.

Weekly Reports – Sciences, Final Weeks

Posted on July 22, 2019 by - Academics, Science, Weekly Reports

Here are some reports from the teachers of each of our Science classes for last week in the Program. We have organized them by class:

 

Senior Science (Dr. Linda Brannon, Instructor)

Week 4 was briefer than anticipated due to hurricane Barry; we missed Friday’s class. When students left for 4th of July, none of the students conducting science projects had collected data. This situation prompted me to impress upon these students how little time they had left to complete their projects. They got to work, and all students began (and two completed) their data collection this week. Data collection for the class study was complete before the holiday.

This week is the one during which we prepare for presentation of projects on Friday. Ideally, all students would be finished collecting data and would have a good rough draft of their final paper. However, some students working on their own projects had not completed data collection, which created a time problem. I drilled students doing science studies repeatedly to help them become very clear about the design of their study and what their variables are. We also discussed their hypotheses and how analyzing their data would allow them to confirm or fail to confirm those hypotheses. Students worked on creating a PowerPoint for their presentations and a final paper. I went to study hall on Wednesday evening to provide assistance to students working on science, both individual projects and the group working on presenting the class study. All students had a completed PowerPoint and were able to present their studies on Friday. Three of four students who chose science projects had not submitted a satisfactory paper so must spend Week 7 on this task if they are to graduate.