junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	remony from connecticut (7/14) Remony is a 6th grade residential student back for her second summer at the Junior Program. She loves the active and experimental nature of Explo's classes, where she has discovered that "learning can be fun." Did you do anything cool yesterday? I went ice-skating. It was fun and I learned how to ice skate for the first time. Well, more like the second time. I went once before when I was little. Do you think you’ll try it again sometime? Definitely. Which classes are you taking? I’m taking “Passport to Paris” and “Ready, Set, Act!” What are you doing in “Passport to Paris?” “Passport to Paris” is a class about French culture and language. We’ve been learning about conjugating verbs and the different key words from the classroom and restaurant units. We’re going to have a little party for France’s Independence Day on Tuesday. Do you like that class? Yeah, I like it. I’ve learned a lot about conjugating verbs. I have a notebook that I’ve been studying, and I’m going to keep it to refer back to. My favorite part is that it’s not like a regular class that’s just like “this and that,” but you actually get to experience it a little bit and use sentences and make skits. What have you been doing in “Ready, Set, Act!”? We’re doing improv and making appearances . . . and we’re going to appear in “Off-Broadway Night”, which is a night where all the classes that are singing, acting, or making videos perform for the rest of the Program. We’ve been learning about keywords where, if you think a conversation is going in circles, you should find something realistic to change it . . . Like, if you’re talking about apples and you’re in a park, you could say, “Look, there’s the ice cream truck!” What else have you been doing in your improv class? We play a lot of games, like the “bucket game.” One person is off-stage at a time, and the other people have to create a scene. Like, in this one scene, this girl was trying to light a fire in the rain. Then, this other girl says her tent is flooded so she comes back and says, “I just lit a tent on fire!” It’s a whole lot of fun. What do you like about Explo classes? My favorite part is that you get more accustomed to learning, and that helps you learn during the school year. They want to show you that learning can be fun. Explo definitely helps you during the school year. What trip did you go on today? Today I went on “Old, New, and Barbecue”. The “old” was the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the “New” was the MIT Museum, and the “barbecue” was when we went to a Brazilian restaurant. Cool. How was the Harvard Museum of Natural History? It was awesome! I saw a lot of rocks and these cool glass flowers. I saw cool insect exhibits and a lot about planets. My favorite part was how realistic everything looked. Even though the flowers were glass, they looked real and preserved. And the barbecue? How was that? Awesome! There was chicken wrapped in bacon, bread, good salad, ice cream. . . They brought the meat to our table on swords. They had tongs and knives to cut it off. My favorite was the garlic bread; it was really good. Then you went to the MIT Museum? Yeah. It’s a futuristic museum where you look at new inventions that they’re building, like a smart car and a Lego thing. Upstairs, there were different things, like holograms and sculptures. It was just fun because museums are usually kind of boring, but this one was cool because it was about the future and the present. I liked how many hands-on activities there were. Like, you could press stuff to make things move, and you could play with the joystick for the smart car. Which trip are you going on Sunday? Tomorrow I’m going to Canobie Lake Park, which is an amusement park. Have you ever been before? No, I haven’t . . . but I heard it was really fun. There are a few water rides and a lot of rollercoasters. I love amusement parks. I’m looking forward to trying some new rollercoasters, some loop-d-loops, and stuff like that. What made you decide to come back to Explo? My sister has been going to Explo Programs for five years and she really loves it. The way she talked about it made me really want to go last year. I had such a great time with activities and skits and stuff that I wanted to come back. Would you recommend Explo to a friend? Definitely. It might not sound fun because it’s educational, but it’s a lot of fun. It makes you want to go back to school next year earlier so that you can start learning some more. Is there anything you wish you could change about Explo? Well, sometimes I wish we had soda, but other than that I wouldn’t change anything. If Explo were a type of food, what would it be? It would be my favorite kind of food, sesame chicken, because it’s spicy but cool and refreshing. Explo gets its “spicy” from the sports and the “cool” from the classes. more conversations > first session \| second session