Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Top 5 Websites To Visit This Month

colosseum.com.mk
why?
Current info on everything going on in Skopje’s
most popular place-to-be.

worldliteraturetoday.com
why?
Offers limited online content from its issues
and free essays downloadable for educational purposes.

icanhascheezburger.com
why?
Great humour on nature's most ubiquitous animal: the house cat.

isohunt.com
why?
Torrents, everyone.

nytimes.com
why?
Because you don’t have to watch the news
to stay in tune.

Peace

The NOT so Secret Life of NOVA’s Students

As high school students, we find ourselves caught in an age between irresponsibility and maturity. We survive off the ecstasy of freedom: the late-night parties, the carefreeness, and the potential for trouble. The only problem with this freedom: the responsibility that comes with it.

School is our responsibility. We have homework, deadlines, tests, finals, community service, after-school activities, and much more. After 5 ruthless days of work and responsibility we all long for a much deserved break from the constant stress. Our break: The weekend. We use it wisely. We use it well. We go wild.

Letting loose on the weekends in Skopje is tremendously easy. There is always a club, party, or concert going on. Our main clubs: Colosseum, Havana, and Hard Rock. These places also hold the majority of concerts, but Saem contributes to this as well, with spacious concert halls to jump, dance, and sing in. We even have music festivals such as the annual Taksirat. Another portion of late nights are spent in bars and cafes. Most of us rent out a café or bar for our birthday parties or reserve a table on a normal night out with friends. Skopje’s cafes are dispersed throughout the entire city, making diversity a simple factor in our lifestyles.

NOVA’s high school students know how to let loose on weekends. We know how to unwind, and we do so in style. We drop our bags, dress up, and let our hair down, and with a drink in hand we relax and enjoy our two well deserved nights of freedom.

Results

Academic integrity in high school is becoming a widespread problem. As students continue to cheat with little hesitation the question becomes, “How far are we willing to go to succeed?”

For many high school students, everything comes down to academics. Monday morning tests, falling asleep over your textbook the night before finals, or sitting at that hard desk with your Number Two pencils before the PSAT are common academic experiences. As many teenagers are becoming more serious about their grades and progress during their four years in high school, the competition gets tough, the expectations rise, and a sense of desperation develops. We seem to be willing to do whatever it takes to raise our GPA, get into the top universities, and succeed in the future. Standardized tests such as the SAT which are based on a students’ ability to reason are coached. With resources such as the Princeton Review and cram courses after school, the bar is being raised but so are the means to meet them. College admissions, parents and mentors, and the never ending pressure to succeed in the future are all factors that lead students to stress over grades and look for an easy way out, causing many to consider cheating and plagiarizing. But how far are we really willing to go?

Grades, rather than education, have become the major focus of many students, and many overlook the consequences or issue of right and wrong when cheating or plagiarizing. Students who cheat often feel the need to keep up with their fellow classmates as the cheaters are receiving high grades while they are receiving the meager class average. Of course we’ve been taught that it is morally wrong to copy work that isn’t yours, and cheating isn’t anything new. The “cheating industry” has evolved from writing answers on the bottom of your shoe to texting answers on cell phones. A recent survey of students and cheating show startling statistics. An overwhelming 95% of high school students in the U.S. have cheated on a test, and 36% say they have used the internet to plagiarize an assignment at least once. Many students have different opinions on what cheating is, but a recent survey of over 24,000 high school students in the U.S. reveals that 64% admit to have seriously cheated on a test or exam at least once. So why do we do it? “This generation is leading incredibly busy lives — involved in athletics, clubs, so many with part-time jobs, and — for seniors — an incredibly demanding and anxiety-producing college search," said high school principal Peter Anderson. Some teachers even claim that being cheated off of without the student’s knowledge is their own fault as well; leading students to believe that cheating is in essence, a game. Cheating is becoming a widespread epidemic, some say. Many justify cheating because, “everyone else is doing it,” and “no one gets caught.”

Despite these misconceptions, there have been cases of students being caught, then faced with severe consequences. In Hanover, New Hampshire in the U.S., high school students were charged for breaking into their teacher’s filing cabinet to steal math exams. Others have been expelled from prestigious college preparatory schools such as in Los Angeles, where six sophomores and more than a dozen other students were recently suspended for stealing history tests with the intention of cheating.

Despite these potential consequences, students continue to cheat, and the percentages rise. The question comes to mind then, that if schools stress academic integrity and take it to a new level, would the percentages decrease? Studies show that new forms of prevention such as Turnitin.com, a website where students submit papers to validate originality, have caused student’s to think again about plagiarism. However, with rising expectations and a competitive atmosphere, it is clear it will ever fully diminish.

Our Common Values

To commemorate five years of the tragic accident of President Boris Trajkovski, the International Boris Trajkovski Foundation organized the forth-annual International Leadership Forum. The International Leadership Forum was held during the span of five days – from Wednesday, 25th of February, to Saturday, 28th of February. This year’s Forum, as well as the preceding ones, consisted of two parts: The International Leadership Forum (25th—26th February) and The International Youth Leadership Forum (27th—28th February). This year, however, unlike the previous ones, was more special. It was special because it marked half a decade from the death of the President. Because of that, the Forum was five days long, for five conveys a symbolical meaning, one day for each year.

The International Leadership Forum consisted of two major events – the premiere of the documentary “The President”, and The Fellowship Prayer Dinner. During the premiere of the documentary, which was held at the Macedonian Theater and Ballet, there were many distinguished guests, many politicians, many diplomats, many scholars, and the President’s friends. Furthermore, before the showing of the documentary the audience was entertained by the beautiful sound of the specially assembled chorus and by the extensive speech presented by a member of the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor Gjorgi Stardelov. The Fellowship Prayer Dinner served as a tool to bring back the memory of the life and deeds of President Trajkovski and to celebrate them. This was done among 200 guests, mainly President Trajkovski’s acquaintances.

While The International Leadership Forum was a time of remembering and commemorating, The International Youth Leadership Forum was a time of debating and shaping the leaders of tomorrow. This year’s topic was “Our common values”. During the two sessions, all the participants heard inspiring speeches and debated on two distinctive topics. During the first session held at the University of St. Cyril and Methodius, the (sub) topic was Leadership in challenging times—Financial Crisis. The participants were honored to hear three speakers from the field of economy: Professor Abdulmenat Bexheti, Mr. Gligor Bishev, and Professor Mihail Petkovski. On the second session held in NOVA International Schools, the (sub) topic was Leadership in challenging times—Establishing long lasting peace. Another three speakers, established leaders such as Ambassador Philip Reeker, Ambassador Simone Philippini, and Mr. Ivica Bocevski welcomed us at NOVA.

The task of the participants or the young leaders of tomorrow was to contemplate on and discuss the presented issues in their assigned groups (A, B and C) and then come up with a possible solution. Later the conclusion was to be presented in front of the rest of the groups. Clearly, the purpose of the discussion was not for the participant to come up with a final solution for world’s problems, but to start up a spark, an idea that has the possibility to progress and grow, and one day might be THE solution.

The Process of Elimination

They follow you everywhere. Slowly but surely, they creep onto your pages. Assuming an omnipresent reputation, they numb down your alertness to them as they find their way onto all of your school exams and standardized tests. All of a sudden, you become aware that they force you to make difficult choices, crucial choices that pave the path for your future. The answers to the multiple choice questions all seem valid; moreover, all have the potential to be the right answer. Nevertheless, only one choice is the right answer, which accordingly makes all the other answers wrong. Neglect your individual thoughts, it is not about what you think, it is about what The College Board© wants you to think. Eliminate, narrow down your answers, lastly, do not over think it; make “your” choice. Hold back for a second, did you miss a step from their instructions?

Before we become robots, we must reexamine ourselves: doesn’t this process of thought go against all the foundations of the modern liberal education? Doesn’t liberal education encourage students to follow their independent thoughts and seek out their own answers? From its inception and in practice, liberal education fosters the approach that encourages students to activate their nervous systems, develop their own perspective and be mindful of others’ manner of thinking. This approach is supposed to enable students to surpass the-conventional-and-limiting-one-answer-system and generate alternative manners of thinking. Moreover, liberal thinking is supposed to free the mind of its boundaries and allow new ideas to reach the surface. Currently, in our so-called “liberal education” system, many students come across “liberal” books such as 1984, which teach us about the immense power of language. In 1984, Orwell outlines a horrifying society in which the spoken and written word are limited, where words such as “doublethink” serve the purpose to limit thought. After reading this novel, the majority of students are left with an important lesson: language controls thought. Hence, in a similar manner, don’t the limitations imposed upon us by multiple-choice answers essentially limit our process of thought? The facts concur with this notion, since when preparing for multiple-choice tests such as the SAT and AP exams, our generation is often tempted—if not strongly encouraged to—purchase prep-books and fill the pockets of test prep institutions that make fortunes from students’ simple desire to attend solid academic institutions. The prep-books issued by such institutions claim to posses all the secrets to defeating the multiple choice. Unfortunately, instead of presenting us with knowledge, these books contain the secret methodology of circling that one right answer. These friendly manuals, which help us achieve our dreams, train us to eliminate answers and analyze texts mechanically. The more time we spend with our good-intentioned friends, the more they rid us of our creativity and individual ability to offer different interpretations on texts. Furthermore, the pragmatic and future paving tricks that these prep-books teach strip us of our analytical eye as they rob literature from its beauty by forcing it to become one-dimensional and limited. Suddenly, our interpretations, therefore our thought processes and schema become wrong. Students and teachers, wake up: a new era has arrived, where the multiple choice judges us and not vice versa.

Through the multiple-choice system, we are taught to disregard our independent manner of thinking, and mold our brains to the standardized process of generating answers. The tragedy of our generation is that we are forced to prepare for standardized tests not in order to gain knowledge and be tested on our knowledge, but rather, we are forced to prepare for how to defeat the test, thus, to prepare to defeat the multiple-choice system. However, will we ever defeat the multiple choice if we continue in this manner? Will we ever defeat the system if our admittance to academic institutions depends upon circling answers? It is up to us to circle the right choice.

Reading: Pain or Pleasure?

I asked my friend whether she has read the book that is currently hitting the bestseller lists. She asked me if I was crazy. "Reading books is social suicide," she said. Actually, what she had said was on the minds of most of today's youth. Why read when you can watch the movie? Why spend do much time thinking and trying to understand the depth of the book when you can read the summary on the Internet? I have answered these questions: the value of a book is not in its length, but in its meaning; the words will be etched in your mind for a very long time, maybe even forever. You can always learn something from a book. Reading should be for pleasure, and today's youth is lacking this opinion. Here are some ideas that can change that.


The love for reading should be developed at a very young age. Children, as they are learning to read, should be guided carefully through the path of knowledge since they can easily stray; the distaste for reading in general is often passed on by the main teacher- the parent. Children do what they think is right, what they see at home. If parents encourage reading, children will develop a natural fondness of books. As the children mature, the books they read will become more and more sophisticated. By the time those children become adults, they will be capable of passing on what they have learned from their parents: reading that is welcomed.


The reading spectrum of children, especially teenagers, should be broader. The books assigned for reading at school, even though educative, are often boring, and therefore avert students even more. “De gustibus no est disputandum,” was once said. About taste we cannot discuss. Everyone is different. What might appeal to one may repel another. That’s how many genres appeared. Because many students do not read anything else than what is assigned by teachers, the books that are assigned should sometimes be more about fun and relaxation than about education. That could be a way for the students to develop the love for reading they lack.


Reading is good; it always has been, it always will. A good book can take you to a beautiful world not present in reality. After all, don't we all want to live in a fantasy world from time to time? "Some books should be tasted, some should be devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly." Those few that Cornelia Funke is talking about are the ones that matter; the ones that will change the way of thinking of the majority, that will improve it. Ever since the dawn of time, people have written books to express their emotions, theories, beliefs. No man knows it all; to gain the knowledge, one must gather it from many sources. Reading gives us knowledge. Knowledge means power. Keep on reading.

Freedom of speech in a classroom

Having always been profoundly driven to disputable and most arguable topics, and felt an almost voracious urge to state my opinion, sometimes, (I admit), just for the sake of stirring up discussion or maybe ticking off couple of brains, I found the tackling of the issue of freedom of speech in the classroom environment to be absolutely inevitable. Being a high school student for two years now, having encountered a great number of teachers as well as students who have different opinions on this issue, and taking into consideration my own ambivalence towards it, I had already known that writing this article might be an delicate and disobliging task.

However, I decided to go with the topic, thus did my homework and researched a bit on the internet, founding some basic info available. As every 12-year-old after his social science class would proudly tell you, freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely, without any censorship or limitation. This is a basic human right protected by the First Amendment, which, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court, contains the idea that the government, and therefore any school, has no authority to restrict expression of thought because of its message, ideas, subject matter, or content. In addition to this the 16th article of the Macedonian Constitution states that:

”Се гарантира слободата на… и јавното изразување на мислата. Се гарантира слободата на говорот… Цензурата е забранета.”

The question is: To what extent does this apply in schools? What are the limitations of the freedom of expression of thought within a classroom? And most importantly: Are they justified and productive?

To begin with, there are many factors pointing towards why a limitation of the freedom of speech in a classroom, as a school policy, is widely accepted and implemented and proves effective and productive both for the school and some of the students. High schools strive to instill the values of human decency within the students; trying to help them develop as upright and benevolent persons; to be appreciated not merely for their academic success, but also for their manners and ways of expression of thought. Such a restriction of the use of obscene and scurrilous language, might lead in the development of other speaking skills, since students will be obliged to express even their anger in a more subtle way.
In addition, such an environment would be healthy and civilized, thus no other human rights would be endangered nor discrimination on whichever basis encouraged. What’s important for the high school is that such a policy would show that it cares for the civil rights and equal dignity of all persons. The high school in question would most certainly strengthen its integrity among the unfortunate plethora of those advocating similar ideas.

Nowadays, school policies, laws, ethical codices seem to be merely imposed and taken as such without any thought. An utter freedom of speech in a classroom would only stir up debates and discussions, wake up the sleepy faces in the back benches, enable a disrupted traffic of thought and make the classroom what the schools have long tried to make it, a sanctuary of unfettered exchange of ideas. Any regulation of speech disrupts the truth-seeking process, inhibits the sharing of knowledge and encroaches on academic freedom.

As for those fearing the use of hate speeches and verbal harassment, one should be made clear: any code of speech would not stop such practices. The name-callings are never done in the open, but are stealthy, and will continue to be. However, once a freedom of expression of thought is established the harassers will no longer have the impression of doing something sinister and secret and will gradually lose interest in those actions, since it is in human nature to always be drawn to the forbidden fruit. An absolute freedom of speech would by no means encourage such practices, quite the opposite, it will show that we all are humans and are aware of our ability of sympathy and ill-treatment, and will not permit harassment in neither in secret nor in the open.

Perhaps Soren Kirkegaard was right when he once said, that “people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” However, it is on us, the young generations fueled with ideals to try to change the world we live in. Let us indeed think more, hoping to bring order to a ‘methodical chaos’, as I like to perceive the world.

Choosing the IB or not?

Listening to the conversations in the halls and speaking with 10th graders, I realized that most of them are in a huge dilemma of making a choice about their subjects in 11th grade. Therefore, I decided to interview someone who is involved in the IB program that can explain to all of the worried 10th graders what the IB is and to answer some of their most frequent questions and concerns.
I spoke with Rina Purrini, an 11th grader student involved in the IB program from this year about her experience with the IB, her likes and dislikes, and her advice to all of you.


1. Can you explain us shortly the general structure of the IB program?

- This program is one of international education in which we can learn how to critically evaluate the facts and the information we study.
- The program is presented by a curriculum containing six subject groups together with a core made up of 3 areas of instruction. The areas of interaction include TOK (theory of knowledge), CAS (creativity, action, service-a total of 150 hours need to be completed, 50 in each area), and Extended Essay (an essay written in the subject that will be helpful in our future interests). This is illustrated by means of a hexagon.
- CAS is a very important part of this program, since it guides the students in the enhancement of the teenage spirit, by encouraging them to take an active part in the communities in which they live, thus becoming responsible individuals.


2. Which subjects did you choose? Which one do you find most interesting, challenging or boring?

- The subjects that I have chosen are English, Philosophy, German, Biology, Chemistry, and Math. The most inspiring subject for me is Biology, since I’ve always been stimulated in being familiar with that area of knowledge. The most challenging one is Math, because it is very amusing and interesting to face math problems in such a way as the IB program presents them, and the most important thing is that it teaches you never to give up. Hence, no subject can be boring, all of them have a unique way of approaching facts that we learn. They are all very different but at the same time very similar (a point which can be noted in the TOK classes).


3. What do you like the most about the IB?

- What I like the most about this program is that it helps us develop the understanding, knowledge, skills and the attitudes necessary to be responsible and aware individuals. In addition to this, it gives us a chance to be participants in trying to change the world we live in.


4. What do you dislike about the IB program?

- What I dislike the most is the fact that the exams are due to the end of the second year of the IB program. However, there is a lot of time left for review and the fear of doing badly on the exam will cease.


5. Which subjects do you think should be added?

- There is a collection of new subjects that need to be added in the IB program in our school. I have even heard that many students pass away from selecting this program due to the fact that there is not a variety of choice of subjects. Some of the subjects that should be added are Psychology IB, History IB, Government IB, etc.


6. Can you tell us how does your ordinary day look like?

- One day of an IB student at school is just as any other regular learning experience, except that there are some after school activities that need to be completed.
The day starts normally at eight, with homeroom, and then the classes follow at a particular order. I have six of the main subjects everyday, and then on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the two last classes I have Graphic Art and P.E., which are my CAS activities, while on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have TOK. One of the CAS activities that need after school involvement is visiting the orphanage. This is usually done from 3 to 5. In addition to this, as the IB program includes Lab Experiments for the science subject, some of the afternoons are spent in the laboratories on the Faculty of Natural Sciences, so that the material studied could be more amusing and seen in practice.


7. What would you say to the students that are thinking between the IB and AP?

- They have to be very careful in choosing between these two offered programs. They are equally strong, and accepted in most places worldwide. However, they have to deeply think about their desires and plans for future studies.

The “ordinary” day of an AP student

Being a 10th grader is a time of a lot of decisions. Especially in NOVA International Schools. Students are faced with many choices and most of them are decisions of a life time. I know all these things because I encountered the exact same dilemmas when I was a 10th grader.

Should I take the AP or IB? Should I take any program at all? How is that going to help me in life? Is it worth going through the whole thing? Where do I want do study? Why? Who? How? And many more questions were giving me headaches day and night. Therefore, I decided to give you an overview of what I chose and to describe to you the “ordinary” life of an AP student.

First of all, some of you might be even wondering what is AP?

AP stands for Advanced Placement and it relates to courses set at college—level, especially designed for high school students by the College Board. Why would College Board do such a thing?

The process of admission and studying in college is a very lengthy and complex one. Students that take the AP courses go through an examination in May in order to earn credit for the AP courses they took.

The AP exams are graded on a different scale than the ones we are all familiar with, the highest grade being 5, which means extremely qualified; 4 is well qualified; 3 is qualified; 2 means possibly qualified and 1, which means no recommendation. In order for students to get a college credit by most colleges they should strive to score between 3 and 5, although some universities give credit to students that got 2. When students get to college if they earn a credit, they might be exempted from taking that course again. Students that want to get an international recognition and still don’t really know where they want to pursue their further studies can go for the AP diploma. The APID, as they call it, has some requirements that have to be fulfilled, such as choosing at least 5 subjects from different areas. Students should have 2 credits from languages (English or other world languages), 1 credit from the subjects that offer global perspective, such as World History, Human Geography and Government and Politics: Comparative, 1 credit from the Natural sciences (where a wide range of subjects from Biology, Physics, Chemistry to Calculus and Computer Sciences are offered), 1 or 2 additional subjects from the ones previously mentioned and from the groups of Social sciences and History as well as the Arts.

So, how does one ordinary day in the life of an 11th grader AP student looks like? Students usually take 2 to 3 AP courses per year, because they are very demanding and because we have an in-school restriction. In their first year they can take one language subject, such as English Language and Composition, which was introduced for the first time in our school this year and the class meets in the morning. Then students also take one of the subjects that offer a global perspective of the world or another social studies subject, for example Human Geography. The third subject they usually pick is a natural sciences one, for example AP Biology. The natural sciences courses are sometimes more demanding than the other AP courses, because besides the normal lectures in school, students are also required to do special labs. This might sound very complicated to someone who is not “natural sciences oriented”. But to the ones that plan to continue their education in the field of natural sciences, this is the perfect opportunity to gain experience in working in labs, doing various types of experiments and getting used to the “scientific” way of life. Students should do 12 common lab experiments in order to gain knowledge that they will demonstrate on the AP exam. I am going almost every week to the Faculty of Natural Sciences to do labs, which sometimes knows to be very time consuming.

Is this all a student needs in order to pass the AP program?

Well, not really. Students should also take the SAT exams, which include the SAT Reasoning Test and the SAT Subject Tests, which kind of go in pair with the AP program (they are not obligatory, but it’s recommendable to take them, especially for students who wish to study in the US). These two types of tests are usually required for admission on US Colleges, but they are also accepted in Europe as standardized tests.

But, that’s not all.

Students should also be involved in many activities even outside from school, such as sports, music, arts and anything else that involves creativity and makes a student stand out in the line of thousands and thousands applicants for college.
Of course, it’s not like the whole world of AP students should rotate around the AP program. They should be their own individuals, with different interests in their free time, social life filled with spending time with friends and family and having fun. Only like this a student can call oneself, a successful AP student ready for a college life and a lot of challenges that one would encounter.

So, is it worth it to go through all of this? I say it is. Because the opportunities that an AP student will have after one does well on the AP exams and receives credit for what one did, one’s life and one’s getting to college would be much more easier and many possibilities will be open to getting to some of the most prestigious colleges .

Love

You know you went to NOVA when:

  • You have at least one book from the library at home and cannot remember how it got there.
  • You’ve gone “to the nurse” during class.
  • You have given up trying to get Daniela to give you an excused LPS.
  • You have at least a couple of acquaintances from each grade.
  • You know that the cafeteria in D period is largely a restricted area, due to all the primary school kids having their break.
  • Klementina has repeatedly told you to keep your voice down.
  • You’ve lost things which you later found in the storage room.
  • You do various homeworks during free period and long homeroom, and somehow always manage to write all of them even if it means writing Math, English, and Macedonian simultaneously.
  • You know which table in the cafeteria belongs to people from which grade.
  • You have lost your locker keys and found them (or didn’t find them.)
  • You have had problems with your schedule; some of them were never solved.
  • Everyone in your class knows what your grades are.
  • The essays you used to write in Macedonian in 9th grade were a lot better than the ones you are able to write in 12th grade.
  • You’ve been shouted at for having your feet on the chairs in the auditorium.
  • The security guards and sefica know your name.
  • You know that the cafeteria is too expensive but still end up buying something from there.
  • People are friendly to you if you are a new kid.
  • You ask Tanja/Darko to translate English words for you on a test.
  • You have a reading journal.
  • You know that the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a book.
  • You’d rather have an 87 than an 89 on a test.
  • You start guessing in which room you’ll be put for the midexams or finals and you are usually right.
  • You can speak English and another language which is not Macedonian.
  • You know the names, teaching methods, and level of strictness of all teachers in Nova, the ones that do not teach you included.
  • Your opinion on Tiho varies according to his mood.
  • You know exactly which other lockers except yours you can open with your key.
  • There was at least a transient period in your life when your visits to Forza greatly increased.
  • Even if you try not to save the copies teachers give you, some manage to survive in the very back of your locker.
  • You have been excused from a quiz/test at least once.
  • You know the difference between AP and IB by the time you finish 9th grade.
  • You actually start enjoying CS.
  • When you go to a birthday party, you encounter people ranging from 9th grade to 12th grade.
  • You’ve had a crush on at least one person from school.
  • You can’t have a secret: everyone knows what you did on Friday.