Category: 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!

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.

The Thinker is our weekly newspaper, written and produced mainly by our Publishing class. Here is the online version of the second issue of the summer:

The Thinker – Issue 2, 2026

The Thinker is our weekly newspaper, written and produced mainly by our Publishing class. Here is the online version of the first issue of the summer:

The Thinker – Issue 1, 2026

The Thinker is our weekly newspaper, written and produced mainly by our Publishing class. Here are online versions of the first 3 issues of the summer:

The Thinker – Issue One, 2025

The Thinker – Issue 2, 2025

The Thinker – Issue 3, 2025

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 (Ms. Colette Tanner, Instructor)

In choir, we will continue to work on the following performance repertoire: RHYTHM OF LIFE, FINALE from GONDOLIERS, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, Vivaldi GLORIA, FIRE & RAIN, and JESU, JOY OF MAN’S DESIRING

Computer Tech (Barry Humphus, Instructor)

Students finally got to start 3D printing this week! They asked every day if they could start but first had to understand the process including the easy things and the hard. The process was much more cumbersome than they initially thought.

Debate (Ms. Jessica Markstrom, Instructor)

Students created and presented affirmative policy cases. Students reviewed and practiced writing affirmative policy cases. Students learned about on-case negative strategies and topicality.

Critical Thinking (Mr. Robert Markstrom, Instructor)

This week was puzzle week in Critical Thinking. The students were challenged with various puzzle activities. One activity had each team putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle during the period. Another activity involved non-traditional 3 dimensional puzzles including placing odd shaped blocks back into cube-shaped box, a slide puzzle that was rectangular in shape in that students had to match the pattern and color on each side, etc.. The students had a packet of puzzles that included brain teasers, geometric puzzles, sudoku puzzles of varying difficulty, and mazes.

Costume/Make-up Design and Drama (Ms. Jessa Lormand, Instructor)

Costume/Make-up Design: This week we worked on assigned character costumes, display board information/content, completed basic stage make-up unit, make-up plots, learned basic hand stitching/how to sew buttons. Students worked in small groups and individually on different projects and troubleshooting. This was the first week that I graded their journals and was overall very impressed with the creativity and care put into them.

Drama: From Monday to Thursday we walked through the entire with dialogue to get a feel for being on the stage with these characters. Friday we did theatre games and movement exercises to prepare for choreography/scene transition work next week.

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:

Freshman Science (Susan Nunez, Instructor)

Their challenge was to build a structure made of spaghetti noodles and mini-marshmallows. It had to hold the mass of a book for 60 seconds and be the tallest one. They seemed to enjoy this activity and most were successful.

Sophomore Science (Ms. MaryKate Core, Instructor)

This week we discussed the chemical and physical mechanics of volcanic eruptions. We also discussed types of eruptions and fluid behavior as it applies to magma and lava. Then we modeled eruptions with the classic soda and mentos experiment. Students took the experiment a step further and designed different trials to see the effects of temperature on the reaction. They are writing their reports over the weekend.

Senior Science (Dr. Linda Brannon, Instructor)

Week 2 was devoted to covering background in science to bring all students toward a accurate understanding and usage of terminology and to explore various research methods. On Thursday we visited the McNeese Animal Behavior Laboratory (Rat Lab) to acquaint students with the facility and procedure that they will follow to collect data for the class experiment, which is an experiment in which we will vary the smell associated with receiving reinforcement (orange scent vs. lavender scent) to determine if that smell cue will lead to a different rate of bar press responses.

Grad Psychology (Dr. Linda Brannon, Instructor)

We continued our discussion of a history of mental disorders on Monday, focusing on the transition from “lunacy” to “nervous disorders,” which occurred in the late 1800s. During that time period, neurologists became interested in what they called “nervous disorders,” which would change to the term mental disorders. During that period a young neurologist named Sigmund Freud developed a treatments for nervous disorders, which soon became psychoanalysis.

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

Freshmen Humanities (Ms. Kristen Harrell, Instructor)

We began the week by talking about the importance and the evolution of the polis. How did this change Greek society? How did the polis rise up in importance? The students also analyzed some archaeological evidence. We also had a test over the first week’s material of which I was very pleased with their results. Next, we delved into the ancient Greeks viewed religion and how it differs from modern concepts of religion. These discussions led us into the polytheism of the Greeks; what we know today as Greek mythology. Of course, most of the student adored this part of the lesson. For the second half of the week, we talked about the colonization of the Greeks in the Mediterranean and its difference from European mercantilism. The students loved our discussion over the polis of Sparta and how the Spartans fear and paranoia led to their military state. I’m afraid that I might have burst the bubbles for many students who no longer want to run off and become Spartans. For homework they were asked to answer four critical thinking questions/prompts concerning Sparta.

Sophomore Humanities (Ms. Lauren Howton, Instructor)

This week we continued reading A Wrinkle in Time and started looking at how the Dark Thing and the planet of Camazotz are representative of dystopias. We journaled about the book and took a quiz. We also read Ray Bradbury’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” to continue our discussion of dystopia/utopia. In this story, everyone is forced into equality by state mandated “handicaps.” As a class we voted on what impairments we would be assigned based on our intellect, beauty, and strength. The discussion of course was no longer “equal” due to our different roles. This activity really helped the students understand the nuances between dystopia and a perceived utopia.

Senior Humanities (Ms. Lauren Howton, Instructor)

This week we finished reading and discussing Thomas More’s Utopia. We began the week with a writing assignment on the importance of “roles” and government in More’s Utopia. We also began reading T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” This poem is long and dense so we broke it up by reading a section a day. We completed writing assignments on each section and then used these assignments to begin our discussions. Friday the first section of 1984 was assigned.

Grad Level, Civil Rights/Civil Liberties (Ms. Jessica Markstrom)

This week began with discussions establishment clause of the 1st Amendment with a special focus placed on primary and secondary education. The class primarily covered 1st Amendment speech rights. Highlighted cases included: Cohen v. California, Synder v. Phelps, Cohen v. California, and Morse v. Frederick among others.

Here’s the first issue of The Thinker for 2018. The students got it last week but we are just able to upload it now.

Issue Two should be ready much sooner!

Thinker2018-1

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 (Ms. Colette Tanner, Instructor)

During this first week, the choir is “voice testing” for vocal placement in sections. We are also learning our “Warm-Up” and “Ear Training” routine and beginning to learn concert repertoire.

Computer Tech (Barry Humphus, Instructor)

Student are very excited to get started doing 3D printing. We have some preliminary ground rules to set up, but as soon as that is complete, we should be good to go.

Debate (Ms. Jessica Markstrom, Instructor)

This week began with a mock debate involving whether entities and actions in video games are “real.” I introduced students to topoi, basic foundations in argumentation, debate resolutions, and started covering the affirmative burdens in policy debate. Students engaged in activities that challenge their use of topoi. Basic foundations in argumentation included discussions and exercises in deductive logic, inductive logic, and casual logic. Additionally, students learned about Aristotle’s criteria for persuasive speaking and the Toulmin model of argumentation. Students were able to identify and create resolutions for fact, value, and policy debates. We ended the week by covering the prima facie burdens for the affirmative in policy debate.

Critical Thinking (Mr. Robert Markstrom, Instructor)

Students were introduced to numerous games sought to challenge different forms of problem solving and logic this week. Additionally, students were given a personality quiz in order to sort them into groups for the rest of the semester. Games available this week: Abalone, Bloodborne (board game), Chess, Exago, Gestures, Hippos and Crocs, the “Name Game,” Pirateer, Score 4, Set, Stratego, Ticket to Ride, Tsuro, and What Were You Thinking.

Musical (Mr. Keith Chamberlain, Instructor)

Auditions began on Monday and stretched into the evening. I am incredibly excited about our new cast. We began rehearsing the music in our production, since there is much of it, on Tuesday and continued that until Friday.

Costume/Make-up Design and Drama (Ms. Jessa Lormand, Instructor)

Costume/Make-up Design: This week we began working on daily diaries, sketching costumes, hair and makeup designs for both productions and began working on Brigadoon costuming.

Drama: We completed a full read through of the play which was very good to hear. We also discussed the show and student’s creative input on the production, began rehearsal and assigned/began varying creative duties that apply to the production.

Publishing (Ms. Christa Bell, Instructor)

During this week, The Thinker staff created the look for this summer’s paper. They also wrote and put together a four-page edition of the paper with essentially a one-day turnaround time. They are working to grasp the idea of media writing, as opposed to essay writing, and the idea of what makes news and how to relate information to an audience.